The STARTEC Decision Support Tool for Better Tradeoffs between Food Safety, Quality, Nutrition, and Costs in Production of Advanced Ready-to-Eat Foods

Table 1

Suggested border lines between red, yellow, and green categories for growth of L. monocytogenes in ready-to-eat foods fulfilling European Law, assuming initial contamination level 1 cfu/g.

Product category	Normal conditions	Extra safety margin for food intended served to vulnerable consumers	Comments
Green	2.0 log cfu/g increase of Lm within shelf life	0.5 log cfu/g increase of Lm within shelf life	Spoils before being unsafe
Yellow	2.0 log cfu/g increase of Lm by the end of shelf life	0.5 log cfu/g increase of Lm by the end of shelf life	Spoils and is unsafe at the same time
Red	2.0 log cfu/g increase of Lm before the end of shelf life	0.5 log cfu/g increase of Lm before the end of shelf life	Unsafe before being spoiled, with additional treatments needed to ensure safety