Shifting Food Safety Trends in the EU: The Rise of Listeria and Salmonella

Introduction

Food safety is a fundamental pillar of global public health and economic stability, ensuring the protection of consumers and the smooth operation of international trade. The ability to monitor and respond to microbiological hazards is crucial for maintaining a resilient food supply chain. Latest publications from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in the Netherlands highlight shifting risks within this landscape.

The following article analyses the key findings, economic impacts, and legislative context of these reports to provide the food industry with the actionable insights and advice needed to stay prepared.

Food Safety 2025: Rising Trends and High-Risk Pathogens

• Persistence of Campylobacter: it remains the most frequently reported zoonotic infection in the european union, maintaining stable but very high notification rates.
• Both campylobacteriosis and salmonellosis exhibited an increase in the absolute number of human cases compared to 2022.
• Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) was the third most reported zoonotic agent, followed by Yersinia enterocolitica and Listeria monocytogenes.
• Significant spike in Norovirus: The netherlands reported a sharp increase in cases during 2024, driven by a shift to the “gii.17” genotype, which affected population immunity.
• While the total number of food-borne outbreaks decreased slightly by 1.2% compared to 2022, the overall number of associated human cases and hospitalisations increased.
• Emergence of “tropical” mycotoxins: due to climate change, aflatoxins are increasingly being detected in Northern European grain crops where they were previously uncommon.

Growing Food Safety Concern: Listeria and Salmonella

Salmonella Enteritidis:

• Trend: EU cases rose by 16.9% in 2023, a trend that persisted in the Netherlands throughout 2024.
• The driver: Persistent infections within the laying hen sector have increased the prevalence of contaminated eggs in the supply chain.
• Industry insight: The wide “diversity of genotypes” indicates broad infection pressure in primary production rather than a single source. Processors using raw egg products must prioritize rigorous supplier verification and validated pasteurisation protocols.

Listeria monocytogenes:

• Trend: A statistically significant increase in listeriosis cases was observed from 2019 to 2023. It remains the most severe zoonosis, with a hospitalisation rate of 96.5% and a case fatality rate of 19.7%.
• Netherlands specific: RIVM reported 115 cases in 2024, reaching a peak comparable to 2017/2019 levels.
• Industry insight: While EU cases often involve meat, 2024 Dutch clusters were frequently linked to fish products “e.g., smoked eel” and persistent environmental contamination. This underscores the need for “seek and destroy” protocols to manage resident strains in production facilities.

The Burden of Food Safety

Foodborne diseases exert a significant burden on society, manifesting through both public health challenges and substantial economic strains. These impacts can be categorised into health-related morbidity and mortality, direct healthcare expenditures, and indirect societal costs.

While many infections result in acute gastrointestinal symptoms, the long-term consequences (sequelae) such as reactive arthritis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, or kidney failure can persist for years, drastically reducing the quality of life for affected individuals.

Understanding DALY: Measuring the True Health Impact of Food Safety

To quantify the true health impact of foodborne pathogens, researchers use the Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY). This metric represents the loss of one year of “healthy” life. The DALY is calculated as the sum of two distinct components:

• Years of Life Lost (YLL): Accounts for premature death caused by a pathogen.
• Years Lived with Disability (YLD): Measures the time spent in less-than-full health due to the illness or its chronic complications.

In the Netherlands, the total disease burden for food-related pathogens reached approximately 12,000 DALY in 2024. The DALY metric allows the industry to move beyond simply counting cases and instead focus on the pathogens that cause the most severe, long-term damage to the population.

The Economic Burden: Listeria vs. Campylobacter

The economic cost of foodborne diseases, often referred to as the Cost of Illness “CoI”, extends far beyond hospital bills. For 2024, the total healthcare and societal costs for foodborne pathogens in the Netherlands were estimated at 566 million euros. these costs are divided into three main categories:

• Indirect non-healthcare costs: The largest economic component, representing productivity losses due to absenteeism from work or the inability of caregivers to perform their duties.
• Direct healthcare costs: Expenses related to general practitioners, hospitalizations, and medications.
• Direct non-healthcare costs: costs incurred by patients and their families, such as travel expenses and specialized diets.

Pathogen comparison: Listeria vs. Campylobacter

Comparing Listeria monocytogenes and Campylobacter data from the Netherlands (2024) highlights the difference between a high-severity risk and a high-volume risk.

Metric	Campylobacter spp.	L.monocytogenes (Total)
Total cases (incidence)	~55,000	~119 (110 acquired + 9 perinatal)
Total disease burden (DALY)	2,600 DALYs	400 DALYs
Total economic cost (CoI)	€64 million	€10 million
Cost per single case	~€1,100	~€88,000 (average) ~€719,000 (perinatal case)

While Campylobacter prevention is a volume game to reduce general public health costs, preventing Listeria is a critical liability issue. A single case of perinatal listeriosis is estimated to cost society nearly €720,000, reflecting the immense personal suffering and long-term care required. This justifies significant investment in environmental monitoring and hygienic design for RTE (ready-to-eat) sectors.

The Shifting Food Safety Landscape

The regulatory landscape is shifting from end-product testing toward intense environmental scrutiny, powered by Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS).

• WGS is the new standard: The RIVM and NVWA now routinely use WGS to cluster patients. In 2024, 38 Listeria clusters were identified in the Netherlands. Many of these clusters spanned multiple years, proving that the pathogen persists in factory environments (drains, slicers, freezers) for long periods.
• Reg. (EC) No 2073/2005: Compliance with food safety criteria for Listeria (<100 CFU/g during shelf life) is no longer sufficient if environmental control is lost. Competent authorities are increasingly using WGS to link clinical cases directly to specific factory strains found during official inspections.
• Actionable legislation: Expect stricter enforcement on shelf-life studies and environmental monitoring programs (EMP). If a factory strain matches a patient cluster via WGS, the burden of proof lies heavily on the operator to demonstrate that their process hygiene is under control.

The Industry Food Safety Shield

preventing outbreaks requires transitioning from reactive testing to proactive, risk-based management. to mitigate rising risks of Listeria and Salmonella, the industry should focus on these four strategic pillars:

• The seek and destroy” monitoring: Use intensive environmental sampling to identify and eradicate resident pathogens in facility niches.
• Digital quality management: Replace paper logs with real-time digital systems to address deviations before products leave the facility.
• Supplier verification: Automate oversight of high-risk raw materials, like eggs and poultry, to ensure safety certificates are verified in real-time.
• Dynamic knowledge management: Maintain a current database of emerging risks and legislative changes to adjust protocols immediately.

Strategic Compliance with iMIS Food

iMIS Food operationalizes these pillars by integrating your food safety management system into a single, resilient infrastructure:

• Centralized hazard analysis: iMIS Food utilizes verified HACCP hazard tables to provide precise growth parameters and risk profiles for scientific CCP determination.
• Verified technical resources: Users have direct access to hazards overviews.
• Automated surveillance: The system digitizes these tables to automate trend identification, enabling faster responses to persistent “resident” pathogens.

Pathogenic Bacteria: HACCP Hazard Table Overview

Viruses and Prions: HACCP Hazard Table

Sources

• EFSA and ECDC (2024). The European Union One Health 2023 Zoonoses Report. EFSA Journal.
• Friesema, I. et al. (2025). Voedselgerelateerde en overige enterale infecties in Nederland: Jaarrapportage 2024. RIVM-rapport 2025-0098.