As set out in the regulations, FDA expects facilities to perform environmental monitoring when RTE foods are exposed to the environment after processing.11 The regulations also provide that environmental pathogens must be evaluated whenever a RTE food is exposed to the environment prior to packaging and the packaged food does not receive a treatment or otherwise include a control measure (such as a formulation lethal to the pathogen) that would significantly minimize the pathogen.12 Environmental monitoring often is performed as a verification of sanitation controls when contamination of a RTE food with an environmental pathogen is identified as a hazard requiring a preventive control.
