Food safety: new concepts for the new millennium

Current market trends for high quality, fresh, convenient foods, plus improvements in efficiency and reductions in cost mean that the rate of adoption of non-thermal processes is likely to increase. Obstacles to commercialization include the lack of systematic inactivation kinetic data, the interpretation of non-linear death kinetics and the need to establish equivalent control measures for non-thermal treatments in comparison with traditional heat processes. The commercialization of new non-thermal technologies, such as high pressure processing and pulsed electric fields, could be expedited by following guidelines given by the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods (ICMSF). ICMSF has recently proposed a scheme for the management of microbial hazards for foods, which includes the concept of Food Safety Objectives (FSOs). FSOs are intended to communicate the level of a hazard that is required to meet a given public health goal and to facilitate the acceptance of different, but equivalent processes. ICMSF principles of setting FSOs, the use of performance criteria, process criteria and validation in relationship to HACCP and GHP plans are described. Additionally, the use of FSOs as a framework for developing equivalent control measures are discussed in the context of establishing inactivation regimes based on non-thermal technologies. The implications of non-linear death kinetics to the establishment of process criteria are discussed, especially in relation to the development of safe, equivalent processes for commercial food production.