Friday, July 22, 2022
CapitalPress.com 11
Researcher tackles listeria in food processing
now Croatia — she fi rst
became interested in chem-
istry while she was a refugee
An Oregon State Uni- in Serbia. Her family immi-
versity researcher is helping grated to Alberta when she
save lives by investigating was 15. Master’s and doc-
new techniques in agricul- toral degrees in food sci-
tural food process-
ence microbiology
ing that prevent
followed her under-
listeria.
graduate degree.
Since
Jovana
In 2016, she
Kovacevic’s birth
joined Oregon State
in the 1980s, the
University’s Food
lethal microbe has
Innovation
Cen-
emerged as a serious
ter, where she now
Jovana
threat to the food
directs the Food
Kovacevic
chain, now sicken-
Safety
Program,
ing and killing more
focusing on listeria
people than botulism and research and related food
salmonella combined.
safety training, education
Kovacevic has been bat- and outreach. She is also
tling the listeria monocy- the director of the Western
togenes since she gradu- Regional Center to Enhance
ated from the University of Food Safety and an assistant
Alberta in 2005. The daugh- professor and extension spe-
ter of immigrants escap- cialist, food microbiology.
ing war-torn Yugoslavia — Her lab is in Portland, the
By GAIL OBERST
For the Capital Press
Stephen Ward/OSU
Jovana Kovacevic, right, and Rebecca Bland study liste-
ria in Oregon State University’s Portland laboratory.
fi rst urban extension center
in the U.S.
Kovacevic’s
inter-
est in food microbiology
began just as listeria spread
worldwide.
“Microbiology in general
was fascinating to me, but
I enjoyed the most the food
aspect of it, especially learn-
ing about food-borne patho-
gens,” she said.
She took her fi rst food
engineering class as an
undergrad at the Univer-
sity of Alberta and instantly
knew food science was her
path. That same year she
changed her major from
chemistry to food science,
fi nding particular interest
in food microbiology and
safety classes. She started
studying listeria during her
master’s degree work and
fi nished at the onset of a
serious listeria outbreak in
a Canadian meat process-
ing plant.
Intrigued, she focused on
listeria research, working
in the Alberta government
lab after her studies. Even
before earning her highest
degree, she was recruited to
study listeria contamination
in food processing facilities
in British Columbia.
“When people start los-
ing lives from just eating
food, it really hits you as to
how important and relevant
food safety is. I got into this
fi eld trying to be helpful,”
she said.
Before it was identifi ed
in rabbits in 1924, listeria
had most often been pres-
ent in livestock. Its impact
was so small then that it
was not named until 1940.
The fi rst recorded outbreak
among humans was in 1981
in Nova Scotia. Since then,
outbreaks of the pathogenic
bacteria have increased,
causing an average of 1,600
illnesses and 260 deaths
annually in the U.S. alone,
according to the Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention.
In British Columbia,
Kovacevic further studied
listeria genetics and began
looking at dairy, meat and
seafood processing facili-
ties. As genome sequencing
became prevalent, she con-
nected with other scientists
as they followed the bac-
teria to its source and then
applied what they learned
to food processing.
Kovacevic’s expertise led
her to food safety research at
the British Columbia Cen-
tre for Disease Control and
put her on the lecture circuit
for the University of Brit-
ish Columbia, followed by
food safety consultant work
with the B.C. Ministry of
Health.
At OSU since 2016, she
has helped develop pro-
grams to further prevent the
spread of listeria. She leads
OSU’s Farm Food Safety
Team, conducting on-farm
readiness reviews (OFRRs)
and food safety related
training across the Pacifi c
Northwest. She also directs
the Western Regional Cen-
ter to Enhance Food Safety
(https://agsci.oregonstate.
edu/wrcefs). In June 2022,
she was tenured and pro-
moted to associate professor.
Although she is passion-
ate about research, she said
she prefers working in per-
son with farmers and pro-
cessors. In the fi eld, she
builds relationships with
food producers and proces-
sors and off ers workshops
to teach workers how to
apply food safety practices,
such as cleaning and sani-
tizing to kill environmental
pathogens, such as listeria
monocytogenes. In the lab,
she studies microbial resis-
tance to sanitation measures
and traces the genetics of the
germ back to the source.
Although listeria is usu-
ally spread during food han-
dling and processing and
problematic in ready-to-eat
foods, Kovacevic’s projects
also includes farmers and
packinghouses. Listeria nat-
urally lives in the soil, she
said, but there may be meth-
ods to reduce what leaves the
fi eld and prevent the spread
during handling and packag-
ing. “It’s out there. You can’t
always prevent it from com-
ing in. But you can stop the
spread in the handling and
processing environments,”
she said of listeria.
As one of Oregon’s farm
food safety trainers, she
also works with the Oregon
Department of Agriculture
to provide “on-farm readi-
ness reviews” — voluntary
and anonymous — to pro-
duce farmers who are inter-
ested in preparing for the
Food and Drug Adminis-
tration inspections. During
these anonymous visits,
farmers can chat with food
safety experts, with no notes
or photos.
Her team’s work, includ-
ing innovative tips for the
industry to keep food safe,
is in a blog, https://blogs.
oregonstate.edu/kovacev-
iclab. You can also follow
them on Twitter @Kovace-
vicLab (https://twitter.com/
kovaceviclab).
The team is also build-
ing a listeria HELPR — a
one-stop hub for food indus-
try and food safety edu-
cators, to enhance listeria
monocytogenes Prevention
and Research (https://food-
sci.oregonstate.edu/
listeria-helpr).
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