Risk management
Risk management response to detection of STEC is determined by the intended use of the food. This can generally be divided into two profiles:
- Profile 1 - Ready-to-eat (RTE) foods and foods to be consumed less than thoroughly cooked. The presence of any STEC in ready to eat food is unacceptable and should always be considered a serious risk to public health.
- Profile 2 - Foods intended to be consumed following further processing that will remove the STEC risk, for example by achieving a 6-log reduction of harmful bacteria (including STEC).
Reduction in contamination with harmful bacteria is often expressed in scientific terms as log (short for logarithm) reductions.
A 1 log reduction is a ten-fold or 90% reduction in bacteria. A 6-log reduction is equivalent to killing 99.9999% of the bacteria initially present.