CFA members are required to use raw materials sourced from reputable approved suppliers, and therefore have procedures in place for their approval. For produce this includes compliance with CFA’s ‘Microbiological Guidance for Produce Suppliers to Chilled Food Manufacturers’. Fluctuations in food supplies can lead to use of spot buying. This requires working to pre-agreed protocols and careful monitoring to ensure compliance with agreed standards of food safety and quality.   CFA’s free downloadable Protocol for Spot Buying of Produce to be Used as Ready to Eat sets out key requirements on certification, microbiological safety, pesticide residues and contaminants, and […]

Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a bacterium commonly found in the gut of humans and warm-blooded animals. Most strains of E. coli are harmless and some provide many health benefits to the host; for example, they prevent colonisation of the gut by harmful pathogens. However, there are small groups of E. coli, referred to as pathogenic E. coli, that can cause severe disease in humans, which are well known to be transmitted by food and/or water and have been implicated in major foodborne outbreaks worldwide e.g. radish sprouts in Japan, sprouted seeds in Germany and France, raw / undercooked beef […]

In response to CFA members’ request this downloadable free best practice guidance on beetroot and onion has been developed for chilled food producers who are using raw salad and vegetable ingredients where the edible portion is grown in the ground and the final foods are (ready to eat) RTE. The two vegetables are among certain raw materials that can prove difficult to source and process satisfactorily for a ‘minimally processed RTE’ application. Both are deemed as a ‘high risk ingredient’ for a number of reasons: they are grown in soil and subject to more soil contamination; the small quantities used […]