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Issue Number: Council III 008
Title
Issue you would like the Conference to consider
At the 2012 Biennial Meeting, a committee was formed to revise the 2006 Voluntary Guidelines of Sanitation Practices Standard Operating Procedures and Good Retail Practices to Minimize Contamination and Growth of Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) Within Food Establishments (Issue 2012 III-022). The committee was charged with revising the 2006 guidelines to include:
1. Sanitation guidance for slicers,
2. Information on cross contamination and harborage points for Lm,
3. More detailed information about how sampling for Lm can be conducted as part of a strategy for preventing Lm contamination at retail,
4. Updating outdated links to other documents, and
5. Other relevant information identified by the Committee.
The Conference also asked the Committee to report its recommendations back to the 2014 Biennial Meeting with Issues to address the above charges and include recommendations that a letter be sent to FDA requesting that Annex 2 (References, Part 3-Supporting Documents) be amended by adding a reference to the revised voluntary guidelines.
The Listeria Retail Guidelines Committee was not able to add much of the new information on cross contamination and harborage points for Lm because the majority of that data has not been published in peer-reviewed journals. Also deliberation on the other points of the charge did not allow time to adequately consider what other materials could be added to the guidance that would make the guidance a more used document. In order to address this, the Listeria Retail Guidelines Committee recommends that the committee be re-created.
Public Health Significance
Listeria contamination at retail continues to be a significant public health issue. Although the 2006 CFP Listeria retail guidelines provided useful general information about cleaning and sanitizing and sampling in the retail environment, newer and more detailed information regarding sanitation guidelines for complex equipment such as slicers, harborage points for Lm, as well as updated references and links will make the 2006 guidelines more useful for the retail and food service industries. Updates to the 2006 document that were developed by a committee whose membership included a wide variety of viewpoints will help ensure that the guidelines provide the best possible information to help food establishments protect public health.
Recommended Solution: The Conference recommends...
Re-creation of the Listeria Retail Guidelines Committee with the same charges as the 2012-2014 committee. The committee will be charged to revise the "2006 Voluntary Guidelines of Sanitation Practices Standard Operating Procedures and Good Retail Practices to Minimize Contamination and Growth of Listeria monocytogenes Within Food Establishments" to include:
1. Sanitation guidance for slicers,
2. Information on cross contamination and harborage points for Lm,
3. More detailed information about how sampling for Lm can be conducted as part of a strategy for preventing Lm contamination at retail,
4. Updating outdated links to other documents, and
5. Other relevant information identified by the Committee.
The Conference also recommends that the committee report its recommendations back to the 2016 Biennial Meeting with Issues to address the above charges and include recommendations that a letter be sent to FDA requesting that Annex 2 (References, Part 3-Supporting Documents) be amended by adding a reference to the revised voluntary guidelines.