The New Zealand Meat Processors Association is confident the industry is doing enough to stop listeria contaminated food from entering the market.

This follows yesterday's sentencing of Hawke's Bay meat processor Bay Cuisine and two employees for selling listeria-tainted meat and deleting test results showing the contamination.

The tainted meat caused a listeria outbreak at the Hawke's Bay Hospital and was linked to two deaths.

Meat Processors Association chair Nick Harris said this is a very rare case and he can't believe a company would deceive customers.

"This is absolute top of mind of all manufacturers. Listeria is a very difficult organism and our industry works very, very hard to ensure that these types of situations don't occur," Harris reports.

"There's probably 1000 tonnes of product produced each week in New Zealand and, as we mentioned, it's the first case ever."