Event Date: 28 July, 2026
Location: Online
Breakfast Bite: How to implement a robust Listeria Environmental Monitoring (LEM) Programme
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) continues to host Breakfast Bites, a long-standing series of free, informal sessions for small food businesses. These meetings provide practical advice and useful information on the topics that matter most to you.
In this short Breakfast Bite, we'll be talking about the FSAI's Guidance Note 45 on how to implement a robust Listeria Environmental Monitoring (LEM) programme in ready-to-eat food businesses. We'll outline what's in the Guidance Note and what it means for food businesses like yours.
Why attend this event?
While Article 5.2 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 2073/2005 requires ready-to-eat food businesses to carry out environmental monitoring of the processing area and equipment for Listeria monocytogenes as part of their sampling scheme, it does not provide microbiological criteria to assess the test results or information on what specific actions to take when Listeria monocytogenes is detected. Guidance Note 45 fills this gap by offering best practice advice for developing a robust LEM program, including recommended actions upon detection of Listeria monocytogenes.
This webinar will give an overview on how to use a risk-based approach to develop a LEM programme. This includes using the expertise and insights of staff working in your business to determine which locations should be swabbed for Listeria monocytogenes and how frequently. We will also explain how the test results should be interpreted and what actions to take in the event of Listeria monocytogenes being detected.
Who should attend?
This event is ideal for owners, managers, and staff working in food businesses producing ready-to-eat food. Certain aspects may also be applicable to food business operators that produce ready-to-heat food products, which are either intended to be reheated for palatability prior to consumption, or where evidence exists that they are not always cooked thoroughly by consumers (e.g. sausage rolls, panini sandwiches, soups, precooked composite ready meals).
It will also provide useful advice for official agency staff and third parties such as consultants and private laboratories who deliver technical support to ready-to-eat food businesses.
This free event will be held online and will last 40 minutes. There will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end.
