2011/739 Guideline for quality and safety assessment of novel seafood products

By Sutasinee Anantanawat

This project aimed to assist the seafood industry with sound practical advice on the assessments of food safety and quality aspects of new packaged seafood products in a concise and clear format.

Seafood processing and packaging techniques such as modified atmosphere packaging and vacuum packaging have been utilised by the seafood industry to extend product shelf-life, assist in meeting the demand for quality and safe products by consumers and create new market access. However, these techniques can support the growth of certain pathogens that were previously considered to be of low risk. Furthermore, feedback received during discussions with national and local seafood processors suggest the seafood industry has difficulties with assessing food safety and quality attributes of newly developed products. Moreover, there were no guides on assessments of food safety and quality attributes for shelf-life determination of packaged seafood.

A literature search was undertaken and used to develop the technical reference manual. The technical reference manual includes the following topics:

• Food safety hazards identified at all steps of the supply chain from pre- to post-harvest including processing of each key species (i.e. molluscs, crustaceans and finfish) and product formats (i.e. modified atmosphere packaged, cold smoked, hot smoked and canned).
• Information and relevant links on domestic and international food safety regulatory requirements of seafood products
• Seafood packaging and processing options that are commonly utilised in Australia
• Potential testing methods for food safety hazards
• Quality and freshness attributes of seafood products
• Indicators of freshness attributes and testing methods
• Shelf-life determination.

The technical reference manual contains fact sheets for 16 food safety hazards.

A user-friendly guide was produced based on the technical reference manual in a concise and graphical format. The guide is designed and includes the following sections:

• Introduction
• Hazard identification
• Australian regulatory requirements
• Processing and packaging
• Shelf-life determination.

The technical reference manual and the user-friendly guide are freely accessible at the SafeFish website (www.safefish.com.au)