1. There is no ‘last line of defence’ with Ready to Eat foods; as they will not receive thermal treatment that kills bacteria before consumption.
   
   Although Ready to Cook products may be more robust in general that Ready to Eat products; this does not mean that foods that are going to be cooked before consumption can be treated in a careless manner however.
   • Food spoilage can be sufficiently bad so that cooking instructions don’t make the food safe for consumption
   • Food spoilage can render the product inedible
   • If toxin producing bacteria produce toxins; cooking afterwards will not destroy them; making the food dangerous to eat; even if it has been cooked and tastes acceptably
     
2. In the event of re-contamination of Ready to Eat foods that can support bacterial growth; there is no competition / relatively little competition and the potential for rapid growth once the right conditions exists is more significant than it would be otherwise.

Cook is a thermal process which is designed to achieve typically a 6 – log reduction in Listeria monocytogenes equivalent to 70oC for 2 minutes.

Other processes achieving a 6 log reduction (e.g. irradiation, high pressure processes) can be considered in the same way as a conventional ‘cook’ process.

The usage instructions are validated to achieve a temperature and time at least equivalent to pasteurisation.

Ready to Heat food products are designed to be safe without the need for a full cook; the reheating of the product is intended to make it more palatable and is not a microbiological kill step. Ready to Heat foods must be designed to be microbiologically as safe as Ready to Eat foods therefore.