Cooked poultry pate, poultry paste and poultry liver

​​​​​​Ready-to-eat (RTE) cooked poultry pâté and poultry livers

Back to Tests applied to risk food

Reference POL 09/2015

All imported food must comply with Australia’s biosecurity import conditions.

Check the Biosecurity Import Conditions system (BICON) to determine if the food you intend to import requires an import permit or a treatment or if it must meet any other conditions. All biosecurity requirements must be met before Imported Food Inspection Scheme requirements apply.

All food must be safe, suitable and compliant

All food businesses in Australia, including food importers, have direct responsibility under the Imported Food Control Act 1992 and Australian state and territory food regulation to ensure the products imported by them are safe suitable and compliant. Evidence may be required to demonstrate the products meet Australia’s food standards.

The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment operates a risk-based approach to food safety. Risk food will be monitored for specific hazards under the Imported Food Inspection Scheme.

Food safety assessment

Ready-to-eat cooked poultry pâté, poultry pastes and poultry livers are assessed by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) as a medium or high risk to public health for the hazard Listeria monocytogenes. Further information on FSANZ advice on imported food can be found on the FSANZ website.

Imported Food Inspection Scheme risk food

Ready-to-eat cooked poultry pâté, poultry pastes and poultry livers for human consumption are classified as risk food. This includes all poultry; for example, chicken, duck, geese and turkey.

This does not include poultry pâté, poultry pastes and poultry livers which are retorted—the final product is in a hermetically sealed (airtight) container and has been heat treated within this container so that the final product is shelf stable (not requiring refrigeration).

Imports from New Zealand

Ready-to-eat cooked poultry pâté, poultry pastes and poultry livers from New Zealand will not be subject to the Imported Food Inspection Scheme Australia and New Zealand have agreed to mutual recognition for the food safety controls for this risk food. This food is recognised under the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Arrangement.

Risk Management

The risk management actions applied to imported ready-to-eat cooked poultry pâté, poultry paste and poultry livers are as follows.

Hazard: Listeria monocytogenes present in a food in which growth can occur.

Action: Test for Listeria monocytogenes

Compliance requirement: Listeria monocytogenes n = 5, c = 0, m = not detected in 25g, where:

• n = the minimum number of sample units which must be examined from a lot of food,
• c = the maximum allowable number of defective sample units,
• m = the acceptable microbiological level in a sample unit.

Sampling

When food is referred for analytical testing, an authorised officer:

• will take samples for each product type
• will take five sample units per lot for analysis.

For more detail on sampling refer to Imported Food Notice 03-11 Food sampling under the Imported Food Inspection Scheme.

Additional assessments

The following additional assessments are applied during an inspection.

Assessment: Label and composition

Compliance requirements: The label and composition of the food complies with Food Standards Code chapters 1 and 2

Assessment: Visual

Compliance requirements: The food appears safe and suitable and complies with​ Imported Food Control Act 1992 section 3(2) (a) (vii) and 3(2)(b)

Version history