The American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI), Arlington, Va., announced a new collaboration with Mérieux NutriSciences, Chicago, to develop a food safety program that measures the implementation of AFFI’s best food safety practices for environmental monitoring. The program is designed to reduce the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) in frozen food facilities.

Mérieux NutriSciences will offer Lm testing and analysis to monitor pathogen control progress in frozen food facilities. In addition, AFFI and Mérieux NutriSciences will provide blinded, high-level data aggregation, so companies will be able to see how their facilities perform relative to industry peers. This industry-level analysis will allow AFFI to identify trends and provide real-time response.