Issue View | Council III | 2016 Biennial Meeting

This is a brand new Issue.

LRG 2 - Approval of Listeria Retail Guidance Document

At the 2014 Biennial Meeting of the Conference for Food Protection, the Listeria Retail Guidelines Committee was re-created and charged (Issue: 2014 III-008) 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 equipment and food establishment environments,

2) good retail practices on how to prevent contamination and growth of Lm in retail establishments,

3) updated outdated links to other documents, and

4) information from and references to documents published by credible organizations on the topic of Lm prevention and control in food establishments.

The Conference also recommends that the committee report its recommendations back to the 2016 Biennial Meeting with Issues to address:

1) the above charges, and

2) 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.

Listeria contamination continues to be a significant public health issue. Although the 2006 CFP Listeria Guidelines provided useful general information about cleaning, sanitizing and good retail practices, the guidelines required updating to reflect new information and available resources. The revision process and the resulting updates were developed by a committee whose membership included a wide variety of viewpoints and expertise to help ensure that the guidelines provide the best possible information to help food establishments protect public health.

1. That the new "2016 Draft Voluntary Guidelines of Sanitation Practices Standard Operating Procedures and Good Retail Practices to Minimize Contamination and Growth of Listeria monocytogenes within Food Establishments, Second Edition document", be approved, replacing the 2006 document by the Conference for posting in both PDF and editable formats on the CFP website (document is attached to Issue titled: Report - Listeria Retail Guidelines Committee); and
2. That a letter be sent to the FDA encouraging them to amend the 2013 Food Code, Annex 2 (References, Part 3-Supporting Documents) by adding a reference to the 2016 revision of the Conference approved voluntary guidelines.