NALT Full

A microbiological guideline is a criterion that often is used by the food industry or a regulatory agency to monitor a manufacturing process. Guidelines function as alert mechanisms to signal whether microbiological conditions prevailing at critical control points or in the finished product are within the normal range. Hence, they are used to assess processing efficiency at critical control points and conformity with Good Manufacturing Practices. A microbiological guideline is an advisory criterion in that a given lot of food exceeding the limit for a nonpathogenic organism would not be taken off the market or even downgraded. Guidelines may be mandatory, however, in the sense that food company management and regulatory agencies may demand that the conditions responsible for persistent microbiological deficiencies be corrected without delay.