By Ron Kinnunen
USA.- Michigan Sea Grant Extension has served as the North Central Regional Aquaculture Center representative on the planning committee for the National Aquaculture Extension Conference for the last two years. At the recent conference in Boise, Idaho, Michigan Sea Grant coordinated a Great Lakes session and presented on its Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) programming efforts with the commercial fishing, aquaculture, and baitfish industries.
Seafood HACCP is a system for food safety control and is preventive, not reactive. It is a management tool used to protect the food supply against biological, chemical, and physical hazards. HACCPs emphasize process control and concentrate on the points in the process that are critical to the safety of the product. Every fish processor is required to have and implement a written HACCP plan whenever a hazard analysis reveals one or more food-safety hazards that are reasonably likely to occur. A HACCP plan is specific to each processing location and each species of fish and type of fishery product.
Some exceptions
The Seafood HACCP regulation does not apply to the harvest or transport of fish or fishery products, or the operation of retail establishments. Practices such as heading, eviscerating, or freezing intended solely to prepare fish for holding on a harvest vessel are also exempt from the regulation.
Aquaculture practices exempt from the HACCP regulation include harvesting and boxing unprocessed fish on ice for immediate transportation, live fish hauling to various markets, custom processing the fish directly for the consumer who does not resell it, and fee fish operations.
More than 650 benefit from training
Since the inception of the Seafood HACCP regulation, Michigan Sea Grant Extension has conducted 25 three-day Seafood HACCP courses in the Great Lakes region training 653 commercial fishers, processors, and aquaculturists. More than 200 follow-up visits to fish processing facilities have been conducted to assist with the implementation of HACCP plans. The benefits of Seafood HACCP has resulted in fish processors developing value-added fishery products which increases their revenues.
Aquatic invasive species HACCP training offered, too
Several years ago Michigan Sea Grant and Minnesota Sea Grant developed an Aquatic Invasive Species-HACCP (AIS-HACCP) program following the principles of the Seafood HACCP program. Aquatic invasive species can invade and disrupt baitfish and aquaculture operations as they have been identified as a pathway for the spread of AIS. The hazards that have been identified in the AIS-HACCP program include AIS fish and other vertebrates, AIS invertebrates, AIS plants, and fish diseases.
AIS-HACCP training materials were developed and Michigan Sea Grant Extension worked with the baitfish and aquaculture industry representatives on training programs and developing AIS-HACCP plans specific to their operations. Michigan Sea Grant Extension has conducted over 40 AIS-HACCP one-day training programs in the North Central Region of the United States.
Michigan Sea Grant helps to foster economic growth and protect Michigan’s coastal, Great Lakes resources through education, research and outreach. A collaborative effort of the University of Michigan and Michigan State University and its MSU Extension, Michigan Sea Grant is part of the NOAA-National Sea Grant network of 33 university-based programs.
This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit http://www.msue.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit http://www.msue.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit http://expert.msue.msu.edu, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).
