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New fishery standards in the pipeline
As part of efforts to ensure safe and quality food, the country's first fishery production standards will be introduced next year. While announcing this, Niu Dun, Vice-Minister of Agriculture, said that the new standards will include 100 items and focus on those most relevant to fishery products safety, including breeding, quality inspection, disease prevention and reporting and feed and drug usage. He was speaking at an annual aquatic food production conference in Beijing .
A considerable number of fishery products in the country still comes from unregulated fishermen and small-scale farms said the experts at the conference. One of the participants indicated that the unified professional standard will help to get correct information on breeding and ensure product safety. A number of provincial regions have already put in place their own fishery production requirements. Fishery authorities in Shandong Province invested US$ 13.6 million to standardise 13 000 hectares of fisheries this year. The move has helped fisherman in the region to earn additional income due to better harvests.
The Ministry of Agriculture will also build 200 pilot breeding bases in the country next year with supervisory systems on feed and drug usage, Niu said. There are currently 350 such bases in the country and all have complete safety control measures covering production, drug usage and sales. The Ministry of Agriculture will also promote professional aquatic food veterinary practices to ensure that all aquatic diseases affecting fisheries get proper attention, said the Vice Minister.
Consequent to the detection of banned drug residues in some aquatic products, last year, USA banned four types of seafood products from China in June for allegedly containing illegal drug residues. This has caused a decline in exports of fishery products and has had negative effects on aquatic production in some regions, Niu said. Ministry figures showed that the total volume and value of China 's aquatic food exports during the past 11 months had seen their lowest increase year-on-year since 1999. Food safety agencies have launched special inspections of drug residues this year, in 20 major fishery provinces and municipalities in the country to further restore consumer confidence. Some 19 600 fishery farms and markets had been inspected by last month and tests carried out by the Ministry found at least 95 percent of Chinese aquatic products met food safety standards.
ISO standards for food traceability
The International Standard Organisation (ISO) had issued its latest standards, the ISO 22005:2007. The new standard sets out the general principles and basic requirements for designing and implementing a traceability system along a processors supply chain. The standard would allow organisations operating at any step of the food chain to trace the flow of materials (feed, food, their ingredients and packaging), identify necessary documentation and tracking for each stage of production, ensure adequate coordination between the different players involved and require that each be informed of at least his direct suppliers and clients and more.
While announcing the new standards, ISO Secretary-General, Alan Bryden said that with ISO 22005, ISO contributes to safeguarding public health and encouraging the economic development of the global food industry in a manner that respects societal needs for safety, once more.
ISO 22005: 2007 is the latest in a series of food safety standards launched in 2005. The standard uses the same definition of traceability as Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) and provides a complement for organisations implementing the ISO 22000:2005 standard.
ISO 22000:2005 gives the basic requirements for a food safety management system to ensure safe food supply chains. It incorporates the principles of the CAC's HACCP system for food hygiene while ISO 22005: 2007 depicts traceability in the feed and food chain.
Codex adopts new food safety and quality standards
FAO and WHO, in a joint statement, have indicated that the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) has adopted 44 new and amended food standards and set up a comprehensive set of risk analysis principles to help governments to establish their own standards especially for food items that are not covered by Codex standards.
Codex food safety standards are developed using scientific advice from FAO/WHO expert committees that enable the rigorous standard setting procedures within Codex. According to Dr Kazuaki Miyagishima, Secretary of the CAC, this is why Codex standards are so successful globally and the reason they have been recognised by the World Trade Organization (WTO) Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement. Governments often adopt Codex Standards in their national legislation and sometimes even see the need for additional measures in areas not covered by Codex guidance. It is important that the extra safety measures are taken using the same rigorous and internationally recognised principles, not only to protect consumers but to ensure that they are consistent with multilateral trade rules, explained Dr Miyagishima.
FAO and WHO welcomed the move of the CAC to look for methods to prevent antimicrobial resistance in bacteria in food. FAO and WHO are ready to support Codex in areas such as the use of nanotechnology and risk-benefit assessment of fish consumption. The two organisations have launched the Global Initiative for Food-related Scientific Advice (GIFSA) to raise funding to conduct this new work. The Codex meeting also decided to develop additional guidelines to lower the frequency of Salmonella and Campylobacter in chicken.
EC proposes new legislation on food additives
The European Commission has adopted a package of legislative proposals, which would introduce harmonised EU legislation on food enzymes for the first time and upgrade current rules for flavourings and additives. The proposal aims to clarify and update current legislation in this area and create a simplified common approval procedure for food additives, flavourings and enzymes, based on scientific opinions from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). For additives and flavourings, which are already covered by EU legislation, the proposals bring the rules in line with the latest scientific and technological developments and will improve the clarity of the legislation. With regard to food enzymes, the draft regulation replaces divergent national legislation with new, harmonised EU rules.
Food additives, flavourings and enzymes play an important role in the production of food for today’s large market and could offer benefits to the consumer in terms of keeping food fresh and tasty. Clear, harmonised rules on the safety approval and marketing of these substances serve to protect the consumer and boost public confidence in the food produced with them. The proposal ensures that these rules are based on sound scientific advice and that consumers are afforded the same level of safety, wherever they are in the EU, said Markos Kyprianou, Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection.
New ecolabelling system developed
The country’s first seafood eco-labelling system, “Marine Eco-label Japan” (MEL), has been launched This was announced by the Japanese Fisheries Association (JFA). Preparations for introduction of MEL Japan have been promoted by all stakeholders, including organisations and companies related to seafood production and distribution as well as academia and the Japanese government’s Fishery Agency. JFA will serve as the Secretariat for MEL Japan.
ACC extents its inspections to processing sector
Beginning November 2007, the Aquaculture Certification Council (ACC) will begin inspecting seafood processing plants that process both aquaculture shrimp and fish, By the end of the year, inspectors will begin inspecting tilapia and catfish farms, the ACC said in the October issue of its monthly newsletter, Blue Standard.
Since it began operations in 2003, the ACC says it has certified 74 processing plants, 45 farms and 20 hatcheries, and trained and accredited 113 independent inspectors and auditors from 30 countries. As of 1 October, 63 of the 74 processing plants remain certified, and the quantity of product meeting Best aquaculture Practices (BAP) standards totalled 286 936 mt. There are 40 BAP-certified farms with a combined production of over 71 000 mt of certified product.
September and October were busy months for the BAP certification programme, said the ACC, with six processing plants and two new farms added to the list of certified facilities. Sandhya Aqua Exports became the first two-star group in India when they certified their plant in Visakhapatnam and three farms. Pesca SA is the first processing plant in Guatemala to be BAP-certified. Two large plants in China, Fuguing Yihua Aquatic Food Co and YangJiang City Yelin Hoitat Quick Frozen Seafood, were also certified. Plants completing BAP certification in September were PT Mega Marine Pride in Indonesia and Crystal Frozen Foods Co of Thailand.
To date, the ACC has certified 20 processing plants this year. Several applications for certifying farms were received recently from Ecuador, Vietnam and Malaysia, and 14 farms recently registered for BAP certification.
Seafood Events
Global Technical and Trade Conference on Shrimp
6 - 9 November 2008, Guangzhou , China
For further information please visit the website
http://www.infofish.org/conferences/infofish/gttcs/index.html
