Commission Decision of 5 February 2010 concerning a financial contribution from the Union towards a coordinated monitoring programme on the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in certain ready-to-eat foods to be carried out in the Member States (notified under document C(2010) 592) (2010/75/EU)

PART A SAMPLING FRAME

1. The products to be sampled

The following categories of ready-to-eat food shall be sampled at retail level:

1.1. Packaged (not frozen) hot or cold smoked or gravad fish

Products belonging to this category must be vacuum packaged or modified atmosphere packaged.

The fish may be sliced or not. The package may contain a whole fish, or half or a part of a fish. The skin of the fish may be present or absent.

1.2. Soft or semi-soft cheeses, excluding fresh cheeses

This category shall include cheese made from raw, thermised or pasteurised milk of any animal species. The cheese can be ripened, smear-ripened, mould-ripened or brine-matured.

The cheese may be packaged including wrapped in muslin, or may be unpackaged at retail but packaged at the point of sale for the consumer.

1.3. Packaged heat-treated meat products

1.3.1. Products belonging to this category must have undergone heat treatment and after that must have been handled and vacuum or modified atmosphere packaged.

1.3.2. Products belonging to this category cover both exposed meat products and meat products in a permeable skin that have been sliced or otherwise handled between heat treatment and packaging. Products may have been smoked after the heat treatment.

This category includes in particular:

(a)

Cold, cooked meat products: meat products typically made with whole or large parts of anatomical or reformed structures (such as cooked sliced ham and cooked chicken fillet);

(b)

sausages;

(c)

pâtés.

1.3.3. This category does not include:

(a)

meat products dried after heat treatment, such as jerky products;

(b)

meat products heat-treated in an impermeable package which are not handled thereafter;

(c)

fermented meat products, including fermented sausages.

2. Sampling design

A proportionate stratified sampling scheme is used for the coordinated monitoring programme whereby the samples are allocated to every Member State proportionally to the size of the human population in that Member State.

2.1. Sampling plan

2.1.1. Each Member State must have a sampling plan, based on a multistage cluster design:

(a)

the first level is composed of the major cities/towns to be sampled;

(b)

the second level is composed of the retail outlets to be sampled;

(c)

the third level is composed of the different food products within the three ready-to-eat food categories to be sampled.

2.1.2. The sampling plan must be drawn up by the competent authority and must include the following:

(a)

the cities/towns included in the coordinated monitoring programme;

(b)

the types of retail outlets covered and the percentage of samples taken from each category;

(c)

the timing of the sampling throughout the year.

2.1.3. Where relevant marketing data is available, the sampling plan must also include:

(a)

the types of products to be sampled within each of the three ready-to-eat food categories;

(b)

the number of samples to be taken from each type of product referred to in (a).

2.1.4. Member States shall draw up a sampling plan following the rules described below and based on the best marketing data available. These marketing data, or assistance with how to obtain the information, may often be available from a national trade association. In the absence of marketing data, the best estimate of market shares shall be used to inform the sampling plan at a central level. In the absence of any reliable marketing information it may be necessary for competent authorities to devolve the selection of the type of product to sample within a category to the sampler in the field.

2.2. Selection of the retail outlet categories to be targeted

The competent authorities shall choose the retail outlets from which samples are to be taken. Typical types of retail outlets that shall be included for sampling are: supermarkets, small shops, speciality delis, and street markets (such as farmers’ or country markets).

If the biggest category of outlets (for example supermarkets) supply at least 80 % of the market of a RTE category then samples only need to be taken from those outlets. Where that is not the case, the second largest outlet category shall be added until at least 80 % of the market is covered.

When sampling is performed according to a sampling plan, the number of samples that shall be taken for each category of ready-to-eat food from each retail outlet type shall be proportionate to the market share of that outlet type within the targeted outlet types.

2.3. Selection of the cities or towns to be sampled

The sampling shall take place in large cities/towns. At least two large cities/towns in each Member State must be sampled.

The cities/towns in which sampling is performed must, taken together, cover at least 30 % of the human population in the Member State. However, if the eight largest cities/towns are included in the plan, the human population coverage may be less than 30 %.

2.4. Selection of sample timing

The contamination level of Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat food may vary over the year. In order to ensure accurate results of the coordinated monitoring programme, its duration is divided in 12 periods of one month during which equal numbers of samples must be taken.

2.5. Selection of the ready-to-eat foods within the three main categories to be sampled

The ready-to-eat foods within the three ready-to-eat food categories to be sampled shall be selected based on the marketing data and detailed in the sampling plan.

However, the diverse nature of products within a category may not permit estimation of market share with a high degree of reliability. In this case, the competent authorities may choose to instruct samplers to select cheeses for sampling based upon an estimated contribution to market share, according to the national sampling plan. Such sampling may be informed by turnover details provided by local retail management, or more roughly by prominence in the marketplace, e.g. what is displayed at the retail outlet. With such an approach competent authorities should provide some direction on approximate market share of major types of food within categories to best approach a sample representative of market e.g. raw/pasteurised milk cheeses.