en تخصصي Special Original article Original article <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><strong>Background: </strong>Food contamination with <em>Listeria</em> spp. can occur at all stages of the food chain. The aim of this research was to investigate the prevalence, molecular identification, antimicrobial resistance, and disinfectant susceptibility of <em>Listeria</em><em> innocua</em> isolated from Ready-To-Eat (RTE) foods sold in Johannesburg, South Africa.<br> <strong>Methods:</strong> Eighty RTE foods were collected from Johannesburg, South Africa. The 16S rRNA region of <em>L. innocua</em> isolates was amplified, sequenced, and identified using Basic Alignment Search Tool (BLAST). The antimicrobial resistance and disinfectant susceptibility (against four commercial disinfectants) of the isolates were evaluated using disk diffusion and microdilution assays. Data were statistically analyzed using SPSS v. 23.0.<br> <strong>Results:</strong> <em>Listeria</em> strains revealed a high 16S rRNA gene sequence analogy to <em>L. innocua</em> of between 98-99%. The overall prevalence of <em>L. innocua</em> was 21.3% (17 out of 80) in the RTE food samples. Most isolates were susceptible to the studied commercial disinfectants. All the <em>L. innocua</em> isolates from food sources were found to be resistant to ampicillin and cephalothin, while 83 and 74% of isolates were resistant to colistin sulphate and sulphatriad.<br> <strong>Conclusion:</strong> Prevalence of <em>L. innocua</em> was considerable in the RTE food samples sold in Johannesburg, South Africa. The <em>L. innocua</em> isolates showed high antibiotic resistance against ampicillin, cephalothin, colistin sulphate, and sulphatriad.<br> <br> <strong>DOI:</strong> 10.18502/jfqhc.8.3.7200</span></span></div> Listeria innocua, Drug Resistance, Microbial, Disinfectants, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Fast Foods, South Africa 131 139 http://jfqhc.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-788-3&slc_lang=en&sid=1 H.H. Makumbe 0000-0003-2742-7402 No Department of Biotechnology and Food Technology, Faculty of Science, University of Johannesburg, 55 Beit St, Doornfontein, Johannesburg, 2028, Johannesburg, South Africa F.T. Tabit tabitft@unisa.ac.za 0000-0001-8004-8415 Yes Department of Life and Consumer Sciences, University of South Africa, Cnr Christiaan de Wet Road and Pioneer Avenue, Florida, Roodepoort 1710, Johannesburg, South Africa B.C. Dlamini No Department of Biotechnology and Food Technology, Faculty of Science, University of Johannesburg, 55 Beit St, Doornfontein, Johannesburg, 2028, Johannesburg, South Africa