Tài liệu Practical Food Microbiology 3rd Edition - Part 2 doc

Legislation, codes of practice and

microbiological criteria

2.1 UK legislation: the Food Safety Act 1990

2.2 European Community legislation

2.3 Hazard analysis

2.4 Laboratory accreditation

2.5 Microbiological criteria

2.6 Microbiological guidelines for some ready-to-eat foods sampled at point

of sale

2.7 Appendix: UK sources of microbiological guidelines

UK legislation: the Food Safety Act 1990

The Food Safety Act, the main provisions of which came into effect on 1 January

1991, provides the basic framework for all food legislation throughout the UK.

Its primary aim is to strengthen and update the previous food legislation to

achieve the highest possible standards of food safety and consumer protection

throughout the food chain. The main feature of the Act is the number of en￾abling powers that it contains. This allows ministers to make further regulations

to implement food safety measures and to produce codes of practice to bring

about more consistent standards of enforcement. Food is broadly defined under

the Act to include virtually anything that is eaten, drunk or sold as a food prod￾uct; the definition also includes water, which was not covered under previous

food legislation.

There were a number of reasons why a new Food Safety Act was required [1]:

• Existing legislation, which had been consolidated in the Food Act 1984, but

not fully revised since 1938, had not kept pace with the rapid advances in food

technology, and changes in eating habits and shopping patterns.

• There were gaps in the existing legislation.

• The major changes of approach to food law brought about by the European

Community (EC) harmonization programme required a change in the UK

food law to make the implementation of EC legislation easier.

• The considerable concern in the late 1980s within the government and the

general public about the increasing incidence of food-borne infection,

particularly associated with Campylobacter spp., Salmonella spp. (especially

S. Enteritidis phage type 4) and Listeria monocytogenes.

Some features of the Act in relation to food microbiology are as follows.

2.1

2

Legislation, codes of practice and microbiological criteria 9