to be translated into parameters that can
be used by food processors to manufacture food and that can be assessed by
government agencies. Food Safety Objectives (FSOs) are intended to form the
link between public health-based goals
and suitable control measures and to
allow for the equivalence of control
measures to be determined. Good Manufacturing Practices, Good Agricultural
Practices, Good Hygiene Practices
(GHPs) and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points remain essential for
food safety management systems to
achieve FSOs or performance objectives
(POs). The following new food safety
management terms will be used throughout the remainder of this article.
Food Safety Objective (FSO): The maximum frequency and/or concentration of
a hazard in a food at the time of consumption that provides or contributes to
the appropriate level of protection
(ALOP). Deciding if and when to use an
FSO is the responsibility of governments
and should only be used in situations
where they will have an impact on public health. Therefore, it is unnecessary to
establish FSOs for all foods.
Performance Objective (PO): The maximum frequency and/or concentration of
a hazard in a food at a specified step in
the food chain before the time of consumption that provides or contributes to
an FSO or ALOP, as applicable. This
concept is useful particularly when the
FSO is likely to be very low or “absent
in a serving of the food at the point of
consumption.”
Performance, Process and Product Criteria: When designing and controlling
food operations, one must consider
likely pathogen contamination, destruction methods and factors governing microbial growth, survival and possible
recontamination. Consideration must be
given to the conditions to which the
food is likely to be exposed, including
further processing and potential abuse
during storage, distribution and preparation for use. The ability of those in control of foods at each stage in the food
chain to prevent, eliminate or reduce
food safety hazards varies with the type
of food and the effectiveness of available
technology.
A performance criterion (PC) is de-
fined by the Codex Committee on Food
Hygiene as “The effect in frequency and/or
concentration of a hazard in a food that must
be achieved by the application of one or more
control measures to provide or contribute to a
PO or FSO.” When establishing PCs, the
initial levels of the hazard and changes
of the hazard during production, pro-
It should be recognized that the pa-
rameters that may be used in the above
equation are point estimates, whereas in
practice, they will have a distribution of
values associated with them. If data ex-
ists for the variance associated with the
different parameters, then the underlying
probability distributions may be estab-
lished using an approach similar to that
“Illnesses caused by foodborne pathogenic
microorganisms, as well as their control, are major
worldwide public health issues.”
cessing, distribution, storage, preparation
and use must be taken into account.
Process criteria are the control parameters (e.g., time, temperature, pH and
water activity) at a step, or combination
of steps, that can be applied to achieve a
PC.
Product criteria consist of parameters
that are used to prevent unacceptable
multiplication of microorganisms in
foods. Microbial growth is dependent on
the composition and environment of the
food. Consequently, pH, water activity,
temperature, gas atmosphere, packaging
barrier properties, etc. have an influence
on the safety of particular foods.
Once the FSO is set, determination
of several factors in achieving the FSO
must be made. When establishing PCs,
consideration must be given to the ini-
tial level of a hazard and changes in the
hazard during production and process-
ing, distribution, storage, preparation
and use. A PC can be defined by the
simplified equation:
•
•
H0 - SR + SI = FSO,
where FSO = Food Safety Objective
H0 = Initial level of the hazard
SR = Total (cumulative)
reduction of the hazard
SI = Total (cumulative)
increase in the hazard
used in risk assessment. Control meas-
ures can be put into place to manage
each part of the process and generally
fall into three categories:
2
FSO, H0, R and I are expressed in log10
units.
Managing the Safety and
Stability of RTE Meat
The remainder of this article will
focus on the design and use of microbio-
