The National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA in Portuguese) has published Normative Instruction IN No. 313, dated September 4, 2024, which contains microbiological standards for meat products and modifies Normative Instruction No. 161, dated July 1, 2022.
The new regulation stipulates that “foods ready to be offered to the consumer that present deterioration that alters their physical, chemical or organoleptic characteristics are considered to be of unacceptable quality and are not subject to the application of the microbiological standards referred to in this Normative Instruction.”
Another change is about two situations in which the mesophilic aerobic parameter/standard should be dispensed with for some types of foods, as described in subparagraphs ‘a’ and ‘b’ of the subsection, this is because for foods referred to in subsection VI, the presence of microorganisms of the mesophilic group is part of the process technology of these foods, so the standard does not make sense for this type of products, since when performing the test it will not be possible to affirm that in the case of a high count, the food exceeds the permitted standard, since there is no way to separate the microbiota from the process technology; A practical example would be to count mesophilic aerobes in a fermented milk, where there is a microbiota that has been intentionally removed. added for the desired nutritional purposes of the product.