Shelf-life recommendations for chilled foods take heat out of argument
Chilled ready meals producers heaved a sigh of relief last week as a key committee agreed to recommend that government imposes a 10-day shelf-life on vacuum and modified atmosphere packaged chilled foods, rather than the five days that had been feared.
But while welcoming the news, there are no illusions that the new rules could put the UK industry at a severe disadvantage.
Speaking following the announcement by the Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food (ACMSF), Kaarin Goodburn, secretary general of the Chilled Foods Association, which represents ready meal manufacturers, said: “I am very happy that we can continue as an industry carrying out safe practice: if the guidance had gone the other way it would have shut down our industry here.”
ACMSF committee member and Sainsbury senior microbiologist Alec Kyriakides, agreed, but added that even 10 days was “quite restrictive commercially” and “put the UK at a considerable disadvantage”
The changes had been sought to protect consumers against the potentially fatal disease of botulism, and the committee's proposals to the Food Standards Agency were based on a review of scientific evidence on vacuum-packed and modified atmosphere packaged foods Food Manufacture p4, April 2006 which recommended 10 days shelf-life at 8°or less.
The desk-based research carried out by the Institution of Food Research under the leadership of Professor Mike Peck, made the recommendation based on extensive sales of chilled foods over the past two decades, during which there had been no reported foodborne botulism in products that had been correctly stored. Peck claimed that the lack of reports of botulism associated with these foods suggested their safety was dependent on “one or more unknown controlling factors”
Peck's advice to the ACMSF that the shelf-life clock should start ticking when products are first packed, and not restarted should the product be subjected to further packing under vacuum or MAP - as was sometimes the case with meat products - was also accepted.
The research noted that the majority of commercially produced pre-packaged chilled foods have a shelf-life greater than five days, and some have a shelf-life greater than 10 days without being subject to any of the ACMSF's earlier control measures.
It went on to state: “The ACMSF (1995) recommendation of 10 days at 5°C/ five days at 10°C is not adhered to, to any significant extent in the UK or elsewhere. The 10-day rule at 8°C specified in the 1996 industry code of practice is only adhered to by major producers in the UK and Benelux market.”
In adopting the recommendations, the ACMSF said it would ask the FSA to disseminate the advice widely along the chilled food supply chain and among environmental health officers. This was to ensure that the dangers of “temperature abuse” - where products are sometimes kept for extended periods within supermarkets in wheeled dollies prior to restocking chiller cabinets and un-chilled in domestic households - are understood.
