Codex debates Listeria standards for ready-to-eat foods

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. Codex is a multilateral body set up to develop food safety and other standards that would apply to all member countries. It operates under the aegis of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation. The standards are recognised as international benchmarks by one of the multilateral agreements of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and aim to eliminate many of what the UN calls "unjustified technical barriers" to food imports set up by some countries. The standards also serve to harmonise food safety laws globally, aiding multinational processors in following the law no matter where they trade. The standards on each particular topic and food type can undergo a huge revision process at various levels of Codex decision making bodies, over a number of years. Member countries must then transcribe the standards into their national laws. 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. A study commissioned by the food hygiene committee showed that the application of microbiological criteria at a given point of the production chain is only one of the measures that need to be applied, to bring down contamination rates. 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. The group includes dehydrated products such as powdered milk, dehydrated soup mixes, herbs and spices, fresh, uncut and unprocessed vegetables and fruits, soft drinks, beer and spirits. 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. At the meeting the Codex committee also set its priorities for proposed standards, with those for egg products topping the list. Other priorities in order are standards for infant and children foods; combining two codes of practice for various nuts into one; setting a single hygienic code for fruits, vegetable and products made from them; quick frozen foods, spices and aromatic plants; low-acid and acidified low-acid canned foods and aseptically processed and packaged low-acid canned foods, natural mineral waters, frog legs, catering, and street-vended foods. The WTO's Codex Alimentarius Commission is the body set up to harmonise food safety and other export requirements around the world. Member countries' representatives meet regularly to debate a common position on every aspect of such requirements, from the holding temperatures frozen meat should be kept at, to processing requirements for specific cheeses. Agreements forged at Codex meetings could eventually affect the way processors operate worldwide as they become incorporated into national laws.