Carne

Meat Science 92 (2012) 260–266

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Meat Science
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/meatsci

Review

Performance standards and meat safety — Developments and direction
Ian Jenson ⁎, John Sumner
Meat & Livestock Australia, Locked Bag 991, North Sydney NSW 2059, Australia

a r t i c l e
Keywords: Performance standard Meat RiskFood safety

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
Performance standards have been developed to express, for regulatory purposes, an acceptable level of food safety afforded by either a product or a process. These performance standards have reflected the development of scientific thought on food safety management through setting of microbiological criteria, implementing hazard analysis critical control point(HACCP) systems, process control and risk-based management. In meat safety management, some performance standards reflect current risk-based thinking which sets objectives and/or criteria and allows freedom on how those objectives/criteria can be met. However, many performance standards do not reflect current thinking and some perpetuate the idea that meat can be consumed with zero risk. © 2012Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Performance standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1. Evolution of meat safety requirements and performance standards 2.2. Meat safety in the time of criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3. Meat safety in the time of HACCP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4. Meatsafety in the time of risk analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5. Meat safety in the time of process control . . . . . . . . . . . 2.6. Performance standards in the time of diminishing returns . . . . 3. Performance standards for Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat meats 4. Performance standards in fresh meat — an example . . . . . . . . . . 5. The future of performance standards . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 261 261 261 262 262 263 264 264 265 265 266

1. Introduction Meat food safety performance standards have been developed to express, for regulatory purposes, an acceptable level (or desired improvement) of food safety afforded by either a product or process. Over the past 50 years, the conceptsunderlying performance standards have developed within the context of ongoing development of systems to ensure the safety of foods. However, the setting of performance standards has not always reflected the best available science and many current performance standards have not been reviewed in the light of developing food safety management concepts. The setting of performance standards by regulatory bodiesis likely to continue and even increase, requiring vigilance from scientists, regulators and industry to

⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: + 61 2 9463 9264; fax: + 61 2 9463 9220. E-mail address: ijenson@mla.com.au (I. Jenson). 0309-1740/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.meatsci.2012.04.015

ensure that they contribute to achieving the desired food...