| Summary: | Salmon-trout (Onchorhyncus mykiss) and salmon (Salmo salar) are the main raw materiaIs in the cold-smoked fish industry. It is important to prevent the contamination of these ready-to-eat products with Listeria monocytogenes and other (Listeria spp.) because the temperature used in the cold-smoking process is not sufficient to inactivate these organisms. The presence of Listeria spp. and L. monocytogenes in the cold-smoked salmon and salmon-trout processing chains of three Portuguese factories examined was already confirmed in previous studies. Thus, it was important to ascertain the possible sources of contamination, the raw material being the most important one. AlI the Portuguese cold-smoking fish factories use fresh salmon-trout from two trout farms in the north of Portugal and Norwegian salmon which arrives by lorry every week under refrigeration, imported always by the same company; 88 samples of salmon and salmon-trout were analysed; 67 environrnental samples from the two trout farms were also examined. The overalI frequency (n =40) of Listeria spp. and L. monocytogenes in salmon was 12 and 0% respectively. The overalI frequency (n =48) of Listeria spp. and L. monocytogenes in salmon-trout was 6.3 and 2.1% respectively. Listeria was not found in the environmental samples.
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