Introduction: Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne pathogen causing listeriosis (Schlech et al., 1983; Cartwright et al., 2013). The mortality rate can exceed 25% and listeriosis has the highest proportion of hospitalisation cases of all zoonotic diseases under EU surveillance (EFSA, 2017). L. monocytogenes infections are most commonly reported in people over 64 years old. The trend for an increase in foodborne listeriosis has been attributed to the rising proportion of older people, along with the higher consumption of ready-to-eat (RTE) food products (Cartwright et al., 2013; EFSA, 2017; Rossi et al., 2008).[...)

The study and project description was financially supported by the Norwegian Research Funding for Agriculture and Food Industry (grant no. 207765) and the Norwegian Research Council (grant No 221663/F40 and 256259).