Ready to Eat

The chilled & deli food market consists of the retail sales of chilled fish/seafood, chilled meat products, chilled ready meals, chilled pizza, chilled fresh pasta, deli food (chilled pate, and cooked, cured, and fermented meats) and sandwiches/salads. The UK chilled & deli food market generated total revenues of $22.8 billion in 2010, representing a compound annual growth rate of 3.8% for the period spanning 2006-2010.

The production of Ready to Eat Foods provides a significant challenge to food businesses. Shelf life, pathogen control and allergen control are just some of the issues that need to be taken into account. The two most common factors leading to cases of bacterial foodborne illness are cross-contamination of ready-to-eat food from other uncooked foods and improper temperature control.

In addition, to the microbial reduction processes in taking raw product to ready to eat, cleaning and disinfection are an essential control employed in food businesses to ensure the safe production of food; i.e. cleaning is considered a prerequisite to safe food production.
Cleaning and disinfection programmes have to be validated and on-going verified to ensure surfaces are safe for food processing; this needs to include both microbial control and allergen control.