A recent study conducted by veterinary and agronomic researchers from Lusófona University in Portugal has provided a new One Health perspective on food safety in ready-to-eat (RTE) produce, with a focus on the challenges related to microbiological contamination in minimally processed fruits and vegetables.

A European multi-country foodborne illness outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes, in which ready-to-eat (RTE) fish is the suspected cause, has resulted in two deaths.

A new food safety management standard in the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) Safe Food Australia Code will come into effect for foodservice and retail businesses on December 8, 2023.

Based on the results of a recent Clostridium perfringens Market Basket Study, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) has concluded that the guidance currently being used for the cooling of large-mass, non-intact ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry products is adequate and does not merit revision.

The U.S. and Canada are melting pots of cultures, and one of the most evident expressions of this diversity can be found in the variety of ethnic foods available in markets. While the influx of these foods has brought new and exciting flavors to North American palates, it has also brought the risk of new microbial hazards.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released the findings of a sampling assignment that collected and tested ready-to-eat (RTE) dips and spreads with the aim of determining the presence of Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) has released a guidance document for manufacturing ready-to-eat (RTE), shelf-stable, fermented, salt-cured, and dried meat and poultry products that do not use cooking as the primary lethality step. FSIS is seeking comments and will host two webinars. 

The questions about the safety of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) are complicated. This article outlines why CEA safety depends on understanding and properly addressing the challenges of combining agricultural and ready-to-eat (RTE) into a single facility. It also addresses why CEA is not inherently safe. Ultimately, this article will show how the risk profile of CEA must be compared to that of other RTE produce and that there is no universal answer to the question of CEA safety.

A recent study assessed the presence and persistence of Listeria monocytogenes in Danish ready-to-eat (RTE) food production environments to evaluate the efficacy of a Listeria awareness campaign. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) analysis was also performed to characterize the isolates.

A pervasive trend exists to take larger and more frequent samples to address microbial contamination. This trend has touched almonds and is expected to hit other nut products, which can be considered for aggregated sampling as a solution.