CFA’s work to support established best practice in setting shelf life with respect to Listeria monocytogenes continues with the publication by the ECFF of their endorsed version of Shelf life for Ready to Eat Food in Relation to L. monocytogenes. The document was originally developed by CFA in 2010 with a coalition of organisations, including numerous food trade associations and the BRC, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, the Health Protection Agency (now UKHSA), and the Food Standards Agency.
Its publication is in preparation for a change to Listeria legislation criterion 1.2b coming into effect next year in the EU and jurisdictions applying EU Law (e.g. Northern Ireland). The change only applies if the Competent Authority is not satisfied with the basis of shelf life for a food supporting the growth of Lm.
Under the changes, individual EU Member States will continue to decide how shelf life should be established, which will potentially lead to trade barriers and confusion within the EU (and in the UK owing to the NI situation of applying EU law under the Brexit agreement set out in the Windsor Framework).
Data captured
CFA is also working with FSA and the UK devolved administrations to ensure continuation of proven best practice, which includes the use of streams of data, from day of production and end-of-life sampling of foods to verify shelf life, together with food production area (environment) swabbing to verify hygiene and act without delay on adverse trends. Sixteen CFA members’ 80 sites contributed such data to CFA in 2024, totalling more than 150k food and 240k environmental results. The Association’s dataset goes back to 2004 (food) and 2006 (environment), totalling more than five million data points, and is the world’s largest known such database.
Listeria under discussion
Karin Goodburn, CFA Director General has been presenting on the changes to legislation, including to the Campden Microbiology Interest Group regarding challenges in controlling Listeria and practical implications of the changes. And also at IFST’s autumn conference under the heading of ‘Listeria: Science and Legislation – what’s new and what’s next?’ at which Karin’s input was described as a ‘critical component’ with ‘clarity, depth and relevance’.
April 2025