In Summary
- Determining a safe shelf life for product must be conducted. Advice may be sought from local authority food safety officers, technical consultants, and/or a laboratory capable of carrying out shelf-life testing for L. monocytogenes.
- Shelf life determination will depend on a range of factors, such as processing methods, physicochemical characteristics and product temperature.
- Food safety law concerning the conditions of chilled product depends on the specific country of the UK.
- More specific guidance about establishing safe shelf life, including a link to the specific regulation, is provided below.
When determining the safe shelf life for food, you will need to seek advice from your local authority food safety officer, a consultant with specific experience of dealing with L. monocytogenes in your type of business and/or a laboratory which is able to carry out shelf-life testing for L. monocytogenes. There has been guidance prepared for FBOs and testing laboratories at the European level.
A safe shelf life will depend on a range of factors including the type of food, the processing method, salt content, water activity, pH and storage temperature.
You will need to determine the safe shelf life for each product separately taking account of reasonably foreseeable conditions of distribution, storage, and use, particularly temperature. If you use too low a storage temperature when determining shelf life, this may lead to an underestimation of the growth of bacteria, particularly L. monocytogenes, and a risk that your food will become unsafe within its shelf life.
Food safety law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland requires retail and catering businesses to keep most chilled foods at 8°C or below. Scottish law requires that chilled food must be kept in a refrigerator, a refrigerated chamber, or a cool ventilated place.
However, most domestic refrigerators operate at about 8°C. If you wish to use lower temperature when determining the shelf life of your products, you will need to provide your Local Authority with evidence to show that the food will be kept at this temperature until it is consumed.
You are not required by law (Regulation EC 2073/2005) to carry out shelf-life studies for foods with shelf lives less than 5 days. However such foods must comply with the 100 cfu/g L. monocytogenes limit so sampling is required as set out in Article 5.
If you cannot provide your Local Authority with evidence substantiating the shelf life you have given a food, you must demonstrate that L. monocytogenes is absent at the end of manufacture. You will need to establish a sampling programme and select suitable locations in which to sample, taking into account the likely niches where L. monocytogenes tends to grow. It may not be necessary to sample each food on every sampling occasion.
