EU Listeria Regulation 2024/2895: Why Water Activity and Shelf Life Are More Important Than Ever
EU Regulation 2024/2895 on Listeria will bring about lasting changes to food safety requirements. For manufacturers of ready-to-eat products, water activity will become a critical parameter for demonstrating product safety and shelf life.
Novasina’s precise water activity analyzers provide companies with a reliable basis for evaluating product stability, conducting shelf-life studies, and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
New Requirements for Food Manufacturers in Europe
With the introduction of the EU Listeria Regulation 2024/2895, manufacturers of ready-to-eat foods face new challenges. Starting July 1, 2026, it will no longer be sufficient to demonstrate a product’s microbiological safety solely at the time of manufacture. Instead, product safety must be scientifically demonstrated throughout the entire shelf life.
For companies in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland that market ready-to-eat products within the EU, one parameter is becoming particularly important: water activity.
Water Activity as a Key Parameter for Product Safety
Water activity (aw value) describes the amount of freely available water in a food product. It directly influences whether microorganisms such as Listeria monocytogenes can multiply.
Under the EU Listeria Regulation 2024/2895, water activity plays a key role, as products with an aw value of ≤ 0.92 can generally be classified as not conducive to Listeria growth.
For food manufacturers, this means that accurately measuring and documenting water activity lays an important foundation for compliance, risk assessment, and shelf-life verification.
Shelf life doesn’t start with the packaging—it starts with the data
A product may meet all specifications during production but still undergo critical changes during storage or distribution.
Moisture absorption through packaging, fluctuating storage conditions, or changes in the product matrix can affect water activity and thus alter microbiological stability.
For this reason, the EU Listeria Regulation 2024/2895 increasingly requires robust evidence covering a product’s entire shelf life.
This raises the following question for quality managers and product developers:
How can water activity be monitored reliably and reproducibly throughout the entire product life cycle?
Novasina Water Activity Meters for Compliance and Shelf-Life Studies
Novasina’s water activity meters help food manufacturers worldwide accurately determine aw values.
Novasina systems offer significant advantages, particularly for companies that must comply with the requirements of the EU Listeria Regulation 2024/2895:
- High-precision measurement of water activity
- fast and reproducible results
- Support for Shelf-Life Studies
- Validation of Product Stability
- Record-keeping for audits and regulatory agencies
- Integration into HACCP and Quality Management Systems
By continuously monitoring water activity, manufacturers can identify and document potential risks at an early stage.
Proven Novasina Solution for Food Manufacturers
The LabMaster Neo from Novasina has become particularly well-established for quality control and research:
The Neo enables reliable determination of water activity with a margin of error of +/- 0.003 aw. The ability to control the temperature of the sample ensures comparable measurements. As a result, the Neo helps companies develop safe products throughout their entire shelf life.
Water Activity and Shelf Life as Part of a Modern Compliance Strategy
The requirements of the EU Listeria Regulation 2024/2895 clearly show that product safety must now be demonstrated using data.
A well-founded compliance strategy therefore includes:
- Regular measurements of water activity
- scientifically sound shelf-life studies
- Packaging and Stability Assessments
- HACCP Documentation
- microbiological risk analyses
The earlier these parameters are integrated into product development, the easier it is to meet regulatory requirements and minimize product risks.
Would you like to accurately determine the water activity of your products and base your shelf-life studies on a reliable data foundation?
The IGZ team would be happy to advise you on Novasina’s solutions for water activity and product safety.