Chapter 6 - A simplified guide to understanding and using food safety objectives and performance objectives

Abstract

Food Safety Objectives and Performance Objectives can be established by competent governmental authorities to communicate their expectations regarding food safety levels associated to specific food products, food types, or food groups to industry and other governments. FSOs and POs are meant to be risk-based metrics that signify distinct levels of particular foodborne hazards that cannot be exceeded at the point of consumption (FSOs) or earlier in the food chain (POs), respectively, for a food on the market that a competent authority has jurisdiction over. Local industry and trading partners need to ensure that they meet the governmental expectation using good practices (such as GAP, GMP, and GHP) and, where necessary, Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point programs. FSOs and POs allow for a point of reference for the degree of safety that needs to be provided but can be delivered by using different food processing techniques. Importantly, FSOs can only be established by competent authorities, since the metric indicates the level of risk accepted by a society at consumption, while POs can be set by competent authorities or by the industries managing a certain step or steps in the farm to fork value chain. FSOs and POs serve a purpose different from microbiological criteria, which describe a statistical approach to sampling and testing of foods for the acceptance or rejection of food lots. MCs may be derived from FSOs and, in particular, POs in order to operationalize verification of meeting FSO/PO values in the food supply chain.