The European Commission recently published draft legislation amending Regulation (EC) No 2073/2005 and proposing processing hygiene criteria (PHC) for the poultry sector. It is proposed that 15 birds will be randomly selected per flock, 10g of neck flap shall be taken and pooled to give 5 x 25g final samples. Within a moving window of 50 samples, no more than 5 may exceed the limit of 103 cfu/g. It is planned that this legislation be in place early in 2017. The EC are currently also discussing intervention options to assist processors in achieving this target. To date EFSA have considered the use of trisodium phosphate, acidified sodium chlorite, chlorine dioxide or peroxyacid solutions. All are considered to be 'safe' for use and effective in achieving the Campylobacter reductions required (EFSA, 2011).
Submitted by Dr. Declan J. Bolton, Teagasc, member of the Knowledge Network Expert Facilitator Group
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