Source:  Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 4/7/11

USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Food and Drug Administration are seeking comments and scientific data to help them update a 2003 quantitative risk assessment on Listeria monocytogenes. 

 
The 2003 assessment examined the relative risk to public health from foodborne Listeria among 23 selected categories of ready-to-eat (RTE) foods, which provided estimates for the number of listeriosis cases attributable to each of 23 RTE food categories and allowed for a relative ranking of those categories based on the associated public health risk.

FDA and FSIS initiated an update to the 2003 risk assessment to help ensure that risk mitigation strategies, risk management policies, outreach efforts, data collection initiatives, and research priorities aimed at controlling Listeria in RTE foods are directed to those that pose the greatest risk.

The agencies are seeking newly available scientific data and information to update estimates of the relative risk of illness and death associated with the consumption of different types of RTE foods that may be contaminated with Listeria and to evaluate the relative effectiveness of strategies to reduce or prevent exposure to the pathogen from the consumption of RTE foods, including, for example, the impact of changing refrigerated time and temperature storage prior to consumption.

Comments must be submitted within 90 days of publication of Federal Register Notice. To submit comments go to www.regulations.gov/.

To read the advanced copy of the notice, click here. 

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