Monday, 30 March 2026
In the interests of public health protection, by way of these best practice recommendations, the FSAI is emphasising the need for food business operators to exert an appropriate level of control over Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes) in certain ready-to-heat meals; specifically those multi-component meals which are fully pre-cooked at the manufacturing stage, then chilled, assembled, sealed in their packaging and labelled with valid cooking instructions with the intention that they are thoroughly cooked at home by the consumer before consumption.
Such ready-to-heat meals do not meet the legal definition of ‘ready-to-eat foods’ and therefore they are not subject to the same prescriptive legal requirements laid down in the microbiological criteria regulations concerning control of L. monocytogenes. Nevertheless, the overarching obligations under Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 and Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 apply, and food business operators must assess the risk and implement hazard controls in their food safety management systems based on the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles.
