Industry Perspectives on Performance Standards

摘要

The food industry endorses the use of performance criteria, and where appropriate, performance standards to establish process control verification, as recommended by the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods and the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods. Performance standards are appropriate if they are justified through linkage to public health goals with measurable impact on food borne illnesses related to specific food products. When performance standards are warranted, the food industry wants all federal and state regulatory agencies to develop and apply performance standards equally for all production, processing, retail and food service sectors. The food industry believes that the development, and ultimately the impact of performance standards, will be optimized when all stakeholders participate in the process. The food industry contends that there are performance standards today that are not science-based, achievable or responsible for measurable reductions in food borne illnesses. In these instances, industry recommends that regulatory authorities eliminate these performance standards until such standards can be based and justified on principles endorsed by experts in the area of performance standards.