Codex debates Listeria standards for ready-to-eat foods

EU and US positions at a Codex meeting to set international standards on food safety
At a six-day meeting ended 4 November in New Delhi, India, national representatives to Codex's food hygiene committee also decided to start work on drafting safety guidelines setting standards to control Campylobacter and Salmonella spp. in broiler chicken meat.

At the New Delhi meeting they discussed various positions, including those relating to proposed standards for pasteurized liquid whole eggs, hygienic practice for processing powdered formulae for infants and children, pathogen controls for Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat foods, and guidelines for evaluating manufacturing control measures. The proposed standard setting what pathogen controls for Listeria monocytogenes ready-to-eat food processors must put in place is based in the main on US risk assessments, according to Codex documents.

Based on the risk assessments, a working group led by Germany concluded that a zero tolerance standard for L. monocytogenes have a proportional reduction in the rates of illness from foods contaminated with the pathogen.
The committee proposes to exclude from the criteria foods that are processing in such a way to ensure the killing of L. monocytogenes and for which recontamination is not possible.

The foods must also be processed and handled under systems adhering to good hygienic practice (GHP), a separate international standard.

Such foods include those given a listericidal treatment in the package and those that are produced through aseptic processing and packaging.
At the meeting the EU delegation also proposed that the standard should specifically include ready-to-eat foods for infants and those with medical conditions.

The EU supports a 100 colony forming units per gram (cfu/g) limit on the pathogen for ready-to-eat foods, if the food manufacturer is able to demonstrate the maximum would not be exceeded throughout self-life.

The EU delegation also noted that setting a zero tolerance standard, where a negative reading is set at 25g = 0.04 colony forming units per gram (cfu/g) "might cause misunderstandings".

The EU also wants clarification on foods not covered by the testing standard, pointing out that previous discussions had also discussed products for which Listeria monocytogenes is "very unlikely" to be detected.

Clarification is also needed about the proposed exclusion of foods for which there is less than '1 log' growth during 1.3 times the expected shelf life, the EU stated in its submission. Various definitions of 'shelf-life' might confuse the issue.

Agreements forged at Codex meetings could eventually affect the way processors operate worldwide as they become incorporated into national laws.