cal criteria within this framework, followed by some practical considerations.
Food Safety Management
Principles
Over the last 10–15 years, the approach to microbiological food safety
control defined by public health authorities (PHAs) has evolved due to the development and implementation of the
Microbiological Risk Analysis as defined
by Codex Alimentarius. 4 This process is
a tool for PHAs to define the food safety
control measures in a more structured,
open and transparent way than in the
past. During this period, new terminology was developed and introduced, allowing better descriptions of targeted
public health goals. These elements are
illustrated in Figure 1 and discussed
below.
during the manufacture of food products. In order to establish the link or interface between the governmental
objective and the food safety management during manufacturing, new elements have been defined over the last
few years.
tured by mixing DMIs without any further kill step, the PO is equivalent to the
FSO at the level of both the raw material
suppliers and the manufacturer of the
final product.
Both FSOs and POs are used to help
determine the required control measures
“Most recorded foodborne outbreaks are caused
by raw and unprocessed or minimally
processed foods...”
The appropriate level of protection
(ALOP) has been defined as the level of
protection deemed appropriate by a
PHA to establish a sanitary or phytosani-tary measure to protect human, animal
or plant life or health within its territory.
Such a level is usually expressed as the
number of cases/100,000 people/annum
and must be translated into more tangible limits to define the stringency of the
hygiene measures to control hazards.
This is done first by defining a Food
Safety Objective (FSO) corresponding to
the maximum frequency and/or concentration of a microbiological hazard in a
food at the time of consumption.
The FSO, as defined by PHAs, can
be considered the “final target or objective” for the manufacturer and is
achieved through the implementation of
appropriate hygiene control measures
Figure 1: Schematic Illustration of Food
Safety Control and Food Safety Management
Systems
The first element is the Performance
Objective (PO), which is equivalent to
the FSO in the sense that it also defines
a maximum frequency and/or concentration of a microbial hazard in a food.
However, contrary to an FSO, it is specified for one or more steps in the food
chain before the time of consumption. A
PO can therefore be considered an intermediate step in achieving the FSO and
can be determined by either PHAs or
operational food safety managers. Either
single or multiple POs, depending on
the complexity of the food chain, will
therefore contribute to achieving the established FSO and ultimately the ALOP.
Depending on the food chain and
the conditions influencing the decrease
or increase of a hazard, such as a kill
step(s) or the possibilities for growth, the
PO at a specific step of the food chain
will be higher or lower than the estab-
lished FSO. Under certain circum-
stances, such as dry products not
supporting any growth and manufac-
within the food chain. These control
measures are nothing more than the tra-
ditional and well-established generic
control measures, such as Good Agricul-
tural Practices, Good Manufacturing
Practices and Good Hygiene Practices
(GHPs) as well as Hazard Analysis and
Critical Control Points (HACCP) or
similar systems to address specific micro-
biological hazards. While the control
measures remain the same, the main dif-
ference from their past applications is an
increased focus on the quantification of
their effects.
Figure 2: Scheme of a Food Chain with Different Food Safety Control and Management
Elements
