The Chilled Food Association (CFA) was cited as saying that food safety will be improved by enforcing, rather than changing, legislation on Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) in ready-to-eat (RTE) products.
Its comments fly in the face of government proposals to amend the law to zero tolerance throughout shelf-life. Current legislation states products must either have an absence of Lm in 25g or comply with a limit of 100 colony forming units per gram (cfu/g) throughout their shelf-life. And the food industry has claimed that a proposal of zero Lm tolerance throughout shelf-life is not feasible.
CFA secretary general Kaarin Goodburn was quoted as saying, “All we have is an enforcement problem. Weve told the Food Standards Agency and the European Commission (EC) that if you enforce rules, you have good control. But the EC doesnt have feedback on how its [legislation is] being enforced.”
She also criticised the EC central reference labs recently published [...]
MORE:
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsafety/news/fsnews.cfm?newsid=24074
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