Food safety objectives in the post-production sector

A major challenge for the Australian dairy industry is to remain competitive through the introduction of new and innovative products, while ensuring there is continual improvement in the management of food safety issues. One of the new concepts that has been proposed as a food safety management tool is the use of Food Safety Objectives (FSOs). A FSO establishes a maximum level of a microbiological hazard in a food at the time of consumption to provide an appropriate level of protection for public health. The FSO concept is proposed as one means of determining equivalence in food safety management systems between countries and as a means of facilitating trade. The practicalities on how a FSO could be established are examined, using Listeria monocytogenes in pasteurised liquid milk as an example to illustrate how the FSO concept may potentially be applied in the post production dairy sector.