This report summarizes the findings of the Joint Meeting on the risk assessments of salmonella in eggs and broiler chickens, and listeria in ready-to-eat foods. It presents a preliminary response to the specific risk management questions posed by the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene. It provides advice on how these risk assessments can be used and adapted by FAO and WHO member countries.

The microbiological safety of food is becoming an increasingly important issue in many countries. A number of factors have contributed to this, including changes in methods of food production and processing, changing consumption patterns, greater consumer awareness of food safety issues and emerging and re-emerging pathogens. Also, the expansion of international trade in food has increased the risk of infectious agents being disseminated from the original point of production to locations thousands of miles away. In addressing this issue at the international level FAO and WHO convened a joint Expert Consultation on Risk Assessment of Microbiological Hazards in Foods from 17 to 21 July 2000 in Rome. The meeting specifically addressed risk assessment of Salmonella spp. in broilers and eggs and Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat foods. This report summarizes its findings and includes advice and guidance on hazard characterization and exposure assessment of these pathogen-commodity combinations for consideration by FAO/WHO Member Countries and the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

The Microbiological Risk Assessment of Food follows on from the author's successful book The Microbiology of Safe Food and provides a detailed analysis of the subject area including cutting-edge information on: foodborne pathogens in world trade; food safety, control and HACCP; risk analysis; the application of microbiological risk assessment (MRA) and likely future developments in the techniques and applications of MRA. This important book focuses on what is an acceptable level of risk to consumers associated with eating food, on a daily basis, which does contain bacteria. An extremely important addition to the available literature, providing a thorough synthesis that will be an essential purchase for all those involved with issues relating to safe food. Copies of the book should be available to practitioners in food companies and academia, including food microbiologists, food scientists and technologists, to consultants and to all those studying or teaching food microbiology. Personnel in government regulatory and public and environmental health capacities will find much of use within the covers of this book. Copies of the book should also be available in the libraries of all research establishments and university departments where food science, food technology and microbiology are studied and taught. Stephen J. Forsythe is Reader in Microbiology at the Department of Life Sciences, Nottingham Trent University, UK. Cover Photograph: Lactobacillus case Shirota by kind permission and courtesy of Yakult UK Ltd.

On cover and title page: WHO food safety consultations.

The guidelines aim to provide a practical framework and approach for undertaking exposure assessment of microbiological hazards (bacteria, fungi, viruses, protozoa and microbial toxins) in foods in the context of a risk assessment or as a stand-alone process.

The chilling and freezing of meat remains an essential way of extending shelf-life and maintaining quality. Based on the work of the internationally-renowned Food Refrigeration and Process Engineering Centre (FRPERC), Meat refrigeration provides an authoritative guide both to the impact of refrigeration on meat and best practice in using it to maximise meat quality for the consumer. Part one considers the impact of refrigeration on meat quality. There are chapters on the microbiology of refrigerated meat and its influence on shelf-life, drip production, weight loss and the effect of refrigeration on colour and texture. Part two looks at best practice in managing the cold chain from carcass to consumer. The authors discuss primary chilling, freezing, thawing and tempering, transport, storage, retail display and consumer handing. Part three of the book looks at aspects of process control, including chapters on such issues as temperature measurement, the design and optimal use of refrigeration systems. Both authoritative and practical, Meat refrigeration is a standard work for all those wishing to maximise the quality of refrigerated meat. The standard work on meat refrigerationCovers both individual quality issues and the management of the cold chain from carcass to consumer.

It is in the risk characterization step that the results of the risk assessment are presented.

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The second edition of Microorganisms in Foods 7: Microbiological Testing in Food Safety Management updates and expands on information on the role of microbiological testing in modern food safety management systems. After helping the reader understand the often confusing statistical concepts underlying microbiological sampling, the second edition explores how risk assessment and risk management can be used to establish goals such as a “tolerable levels of risk,” Appropriate Levels of Protection, Food Safety Objectives or Performance Objectives for use in controlling foodborne illness. Guidelines for establishing effective management systems for control of specific hazards in foods are also addressed, including new examples for pathogens and indicator organisms in powdered infant formula, Listeria monocytogenes in deli-meats, enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli in leafy green vegetables, viruses in oysters and Campylobacter in poultry. In addition, a new chapter on application of sampling concept to microbiological methods, expanded chapters covering statistical process control, investigational sampling, environmental sampling, and alternative sampling schemes. The respective roles of industry and government are also explored, recognizing that it is through their collective actions that effective food safety systems are developed and verified. Understanding these systems and concepts can help countries determine whether imported foods were produced with an equivalent level of protection. Microorganisms in Foods 7 is intended for anyone using microbiological testing or setting microbiological criteria, whether for governmental food inspection and control, or industrial applications. It is also intended for those identifying the most effective use of microbiological testing in the food supply chain. For students in food science and technology, this book provides a wealth of information on food safety management principles used by government and industry, with many references for further study. The information was prepared by the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods (ICMSF). The ICMSF was formed in response to the need for internationally acceptable and authoritative decisions on microbiological limits for foods in international commerce. The current membership consists of fifteen food microbiologists from twelve countries, drawn from government, universities, and food processing and related industries.