Ready to eat or ready to cook?

Hi, 

our company produce frozen pizzas.

We dress a par-baked crust with sauce, shredded mozzarella and meat toppings (pepperoni, ham, bacon).

All the toppings are ready to eat but we considered our finished product ready to cook indicating cooking instructions on the package.

Also, the product is sold frozen, indicating the KEEP FROZEN on the package as well.

Do you think our classification as ready to cook is correct? or should we consider our product ready to eat and develop a written program to control Listeria monocytogenes?

Thanks for your suggestions

I think you program should account for listeria, and possibly the other pathogens associated with those meats/cheeses.  I acknowledge that you're handling all RTE ingredients, but mishandling of those or improper sanitation after your processing run leaves potential for dropped ingredients and work surfaces to start harboring bacteria and pathogens.

I'd stick with your ready-to-cook labeling and cooking instructions as well.  I'm having flashbacks to a story where some construction worker got sick from leaving frozen tv dinners on the dash of his truck to warm up in the sun until his lunch break.  Guarantee if you put "Ready-to-Eat" on the pizza, someone's going to leave it to thaw on their counter and eat it after it's been left too long in an unacceptable temperature range.

I would ask your inspector. In the USDA, they provide documents on how to classify items. 

However if you pizza dough isn't ready to eat then I would say your product is ready to cook. 

Side note: when asking questions on this site - no need to post in more than spot. The question will reach everyone regardless of which topic you put it in. 

Hi kfromNE,

sorry for posting multiple threads but the website was not working properly yesterday and I was receiving an error message.

we do take in account Listeria in our sampling procedure. we test food contact surfaces and finished product for Listeria.

CFIA surprised me saying I should have a written program to control Listeria monocytogenes in Ready to Eat Foods. 

Sounds like our frozen pizza is a RTE.