Fast-Track Food Safety with 2-Hour Listeria Testing

When Neogen introduced its Molecular Detection Assay - Listeria Right Now™ at the International Association for Food Protection meeting in Cleveland in July, it wasn’t just another product launch — it was an invitation to rethink how food safety teams act on threats.

Imagine being able to swab production surfaces, run a test, read results, reclean, and retest within the same shift. That’s precisely the capability Neogen is offering. More than convenient, it’s game-changing.

Pathogen detection is a cornerstone of any effective environmental monitoring program, acting as an early-warning system to find and eliminate threats before they reach finished products.

Among the most significant concerns is Listeria monocytogenes, a resilient bacterium capable of surviving and growing in cold, damp environments common in food production facilities.

Neogen Technical Specialist, John Fam warns that Listeria can result in serious illness and is particularly dangerous to vulnerable populations. Being so common in the environment, with a demonstrated ability to get into a wide range of foods, makes effective management of Listeria a priority for many producers.

“Its ability to survive and grow at refrigeration temperatures and form biofilms are major concerns,” says Fam. “If food processors do not have an adequate control programme in place, there will be consequences.”

The industries most affected include ready-to-eat, meat, seafood, dairy, and fresh produce processing. In these settings, Listeria can persist in niches such as floor-wall junctions, drains, equipment legs, gaskets, and overhead drip pans — areas that are often damp, hard to clean, and overlooked during routine sanitation.

Historically, detecting Listeria in environmental samples has been a laborious, time-intensive process. Traditional culture-based methods can take 24 to 48 hours, often requiring enrichment of the sample to amplify the tiny number of bacteria present.

John Fam says in many cases it can take even longer.

“Food processors who do not have onsite testing capabilities rely on third-party testing labs, which means results may not be available for three days or more.”

That delay leaves food producers vulnerable to unseen risks, potentially triggering product holds — or worse, recalls — just as they near the finishing line.

With Listeria Right Now, those timelines shrink dramatically: results are available in as little as two hours, with no enrichment required.

“This means the corrective action can be implemented much sooner,” says Fam. “The LRN will also provide faster retests to verify the corrective action, so that production can resume much sooner as well.”

What makes this possible is the innovation behind the Molecular Detection System (MDS). Abandoning the PCR model of cycling temperatures, Neogen uses Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP), a constant-temperature process that’s swift and less instrument-heavy.

Instead of targeting DNA, the assay homes in on ribosomal RNA (rRNA) — molecules that naturally exist in the thousands per bacterial cell versus the single-copy DNA gene. That means amplification starts with vastly more target material, dramatically boosting detection speed.

The new Listeria Right Now blends that molecular power with improved ergonomics and workflow optimisation, streamlining the process from nine steps on the previous ANSR platform to just six with the MDS integration.

The test begins with a specially designed sampler that navigates surfaces up to 30x30cm — including crevices — while resisting common sanitisers which can mask contamination and produce false negatives.

The swab goes into a tube with a proprietary buffer solution, then into reagent tubes preloaded with blue, color-coded reagent pellets, simplifying preparation, minimising errors, and ensuring consistency.

From there, the MDS takes over: intuitive software, color-coded tracking, and capacity to handle up to 96 samples in a single run, even across different assay types. This multi-assay flexibility keeps labs agile without overwhelming complexity.

But innovation is only meaningful if it stands up to scrutiny. Validation tells the real story. In previous side-by-side trials on stainless steel surfaces, the enrichment-free Listeria Right Now method matched traditional culture methods in sensitivity.

By doing away with additional resources required for pathogen testing such as enrichment media, incubators and sample preparation materials, LRN is a significant leap forward.

“All food processors perform environmental swabbing,” says Fam. “Implementing the LRN and MDS with full training and support from our technical team will be a relatively simple transition with a huge upside.”

The implications for food safety operations are profound. In dairy, produce, meat, and ready-to-eat facilities, this method turns environmental monitoring from a sluggish, reactive chore into real-time, proactive control. Teams can spot trouble, clean it, and verify its resolution — all before staff changeover.

As Dr. Jason Lilly, Neogen’s Chief Scientific Officer, said, “When it comes to Listeria, every hour counts.”

That sense of urgency, paired with actionable intelligence, is empowering facilities to strengthen compliance while guarding public health.

In essence, Listeria Right Now doesn’t merely shrink testing timelines — it flips the script. What once took days now unfolds across a single morning. And in an industry where delays can mean recalls, brand damage, or worse, that speed doesn’t just save time — it saves trust, cost, and perhaps even lives.

To learn more about Neogen’s new Molecular Detection Assay — Listeria Right Now, visit neogenaustralia.com.au.