Listeria triggers lively debate at Codex hygiene prep meeting

摘要

Consumer advocates were out in force last week to challenge a draft U.S. position on Listeria monocytogenes at a public preparatory meeting for the next Codex Committee on Food Hygiene session, Dec. 1-5, in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Advocates on hand included Chris Waldrop, Consumer Federation of America; Caroline Smith DeWaal and David Plunkett, Center for Science in the Public Interest; and Tony Corbo, Food & Water Watch. In a draft position on the long-running L. monocytogenes issue distributed at the Oct. 30 meeting, the United States acknowledges that a microbiological criterion of 100 colony forming units per gram for foods that don't support growth of Lm was adopted by numerous countries "and is likely to be a microbiological criterion adopted by the Codex Alimentarius for this class of ready-to-eat foods. The United States will not object to this microbiological criterion but will reserve the right under the WTO SPS [World Trade Organization Sanitary and Phytosanitary] agreement to specify a more stringent standard for the United States, if it is deemed necessary to protect the public health of our citizens."