PART B U.K. SAMPLE COLLECTION AND TRANSPORT
1. Type and detail of sample U.K.
Samples shall be taken at random from the customer display and must weight at least 100 g each. It is possible to take more than one sample from each three ready-to-eat food category during the same visit to the retail outlet. However, no more than five batches from each category should be sampled at the same visit.
Only packaged and intact (sealed) packages, packaged by the manufacturer, shall be collected for sampling. However, in case of cheeses and meat products, products packaged at the retail outlet may also be collected for sampling.
The products collected for sampling must be labelled in order to make it possible to record information concerning the products. Information on the label shall include the following:
details of the country of production;
batch number;
durability date;
instructions on temperature storage conditions, if available;
other information which is normally on the label of packaged ready-to-eat food.
If not all the information referred to in points (a) to (d) is present on the label, the sampler shall ask the owner or manager of the retail outlet for the missing information on the product and labelling details and/or refer to the wholesale pack for that information.
If the label on the ready-to-eat food is not clear or is otherwise damaged, then the product shall not be collected for sampling. Two samples shall be collected from each batch of smoked or gravad fish sampled. Labelling information, such as batch numbers, date until which the product may be sold must be examined to ensure that the two samples are from the same batch. One of those two samples must be analysed on the day of receipt of the sample at the laboratory and the other at the end of shelf-life.
For soft and semi-soft cheeses and heat-treated meat products, only one sample is taken from a batch that must be analysed at the end of shelf-life.
The samples must be placed in a separate sampling bag and sent immediately to the laboratory for analysis.
Precautions must be taken at all stages to ensure that the equipment used during sampling, transport and storage is not contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
2. Sample information U.K.
All relevant information available concerning the sample shall be recorded on a sampling form, the model of which shall be drawn up by the competent authority. The sampling form shall accompany the sample at all times. In the case of cheese samples packaged at the retail outlet, it may be necessary to ask for the information on the required product and labelling details and/or refer to the wholesale pack for this information.
When samples are collected, the surface temperature of the packaged samples shall be measured and recorded on the sampling form.
Each sample and its sample form shall be labelled with a unique number which shall be used from sampling to testing. The competent authority shall use for this purpose a unique numbering system.
3. Transport of samples U.K.
The samples shall be transported in refrigerated containers and must be kept at between 2 to 8 °C and free from external contamination during transportation.
All ready-to-eat food samples must reach the laboratory within 24 hours of the time of sampling.
In exceptional circumstances the transportation time may exceed 24 hours. However, the transportation time shall not be longer than 48 hours and shall in no circumstances lead to testing being carried out after the sell by date of the product collected for sampling.