In June 2022 CFA Director General Karin Goodburn MBE gave evidence to the Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food (ACMSF) Subgroup conducting the review of the entire risk basis of the FSA Guidelines on the control of non-proteolytic Clostridium botulinum in the vacuum and modified atmosphere packaging of chilled food (CFA News 58) and looking more widely at botulism risks. The subgroup was not authorised by FSA to review the guidance in relation to fresh meat although industry maintains that it does not reflect internationally-established risk. CFA is seeking correction of technical errors and removal of UK-only […]

Work continues on building a consortium of European and international industry and the industry Response to the EU’s awaited but undefined proposed changes to Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) legislation (EU Microbiological Criteria for Foodstuffs Regulation 2073/2005) (CFA News #56 and #57). Potential changes to the regulation include: loss of 100 cfu/g as an upper limit and introduction of zero tolerance/not detected in 25g requirements to set shelf life by challenge testing and not durability testing. This is the most important policy matter for the UK industry, which can demonstrate through hard data (epidemiology, food and environmental sampling) that its approach is […]

Brexit continues to sit high on CFA’s agenda, with the Association leading in Government engagement on the future of trade between Great Britain, Northern Ireland (NI), the EU and Rest of the World (ROW). The Windsor Framework (WF) was agreed in March by the UK and EU Parliaments, and the draft Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) published on 5 April. Both set out new intended reduced bureaucracy approaches on GB-NI (WF) and ROW-GB (BTOM) trade in sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) food and feed. Measures will start to come into effect in October. However, as with many post-Brexit trade arrangements, the […]