Microbiological safety: Commission publishes revision on Guidance document on Listeria monocytogenes for ready-to-eat foods

The Commission has published a revision to the Guidance Document on Listeria monocytogenes monitoring and shelf-life studies for ready-to-eat foods under Commission Regulation (EC) No 2073/2005 of 15 November 2005 on microbiological criteria for foodstuffs.

The revision includes changes made in the last amendment to Regulation 2073/2005 regarding Listeria monocytogenes (Reg 2024/2895), which dictates that "the food safety criterion ‘Listeria monocytogenes not detected in 25 g’ should apply to all situations where those foods are placed on the market during their shelf-life and for which the producing food business operator has not been able to demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the competent authority, that the level of Listeria monocytogenes will not exceed the limit of 100 cfu/g throughout their shelf-life."

The revised guidance is available as an attachment below:

Guidance-Document-on-Listeria-monocytogenes-monitoring-and-shelf-life-studies-for-ready-to-eat-foods_DEC_2025

Contact: João Pereira at jpereira@frucom.eu.