Food safety guidance demands high skill levels

New guidance from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) for vacuum packed and modified atmosphere chilled products will require significant skill in applying to avoid cases of potentially fatal botulism.

The guidance is meant to assist small businesses prevent growth of the pathogen Clostridium botulinum​ (C. botlinum​). It suggests that where the 10 day shelf-life at storage temperatures of between 3°C and 8°​ of such products is to be extended a number of extra control measures should be used.

However, experts in the food industry fear that because expertise is required in applying these control measures, there could be increased risk of food poisoning. “It’s really complicated and you have to know what you are doing,” said Kaarin Goodburn, general secretary of the Chilled Foods Association. “It should all be about safety … I think this is an argument for licensing of food operators, you’ve got to know what you are doing.”The FSA also last week issued new targets for salt reduction for 2010 for a wide range of foodstuffs, with even lower levels proposed for 2012. For ham and other cured meats current 2010 targets of 2.5g of salt per 100g have been reduced to 2.13g/100g, with targets of 1.75g/100g proposed for 2012.

“If it’s a vacuum packed product you have to be jolly careful that you’ve got the salt level sufficient and this is one area we are going to be looking at,” said Clare Cheney, director general of the Provision Trade Federation.

Goodburn said: “There’s no point in having a healthy population if you kill them with botulism. So you’ve got to get the safety right first, which means you have to understand what you are doing.” Regarding the new salt targets, Goodburn added: “I can’t see any mention of cold smoked fish, which is the critical one which is fundamentally controlled by high salt.”

Elizabeth Andoh-Kesson, legislation and technical manager for the British Meat Processors Association said: “We’re not really sure where these targets have come from … With ham and bacon we’ve also got the introduction of the nitrites and nitrates legislation, which reduces the amount put in products … That’s already reducing shelf-life on products. With what they are proposing now, it is almost unachievable.”

The FSA’s Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food has recommended in the advice that in addition to chill temperatures, which should be maintained throughout the food chain, a number of factors should be used singly or in combination to prevent growth and toxin production by non-proteolytic C. botlinum​ in chilled foods with a shelf-life of more than 10 days:

• A heat treatment of 90°C for 10 minutes or equivalent lethality
• A pH of five or less throughout the food and throughout all components of complex foods
• A minimum salt level of 3.5% in the aqueous phase throughout the food and throughout all components of complex foods
• A water activity of 0.97 or less throughout the food and throughout all components of complex foods
• A combination of heat and preservative factors, which can be shown consistently to prevent growth and toxin production by non-proteolytic C. botulinum​