New Best Aquaculture Practices Standards For Seafood Processing Plants Now Available for Comment

The Best Aquaculture Practices certification standards that have been implemented at dozens of shrimp-processing plants in Asia and Central America are evolving into standards to be applied by processors of all types of farmed seafood.

Public comment drafts of the new BAP seafood processing plant standards and audit form are now available for review and public input on the Global Aquaculture Alliance Website at http://www.gaalliance.org/comment1.html.

The alliance developed the standards with the assistance of a technical committee composed of international members with expertise in processing a wide range of fish and shellfish.

All parties are welcome to complete the online form, e-mail comments, or fax in suggested changes before the two-month comment period ends September 25. At that time, committee members will review the submitted comments and integrate recommendations into a final draft that must be approved by a consensus of members before implementation.

Since many processing methods, materials, and issues are shared by processors of various farmed fish, crustaceans, and mollusks, the new standards are very similar to the earlier version. They continue to be based on requirements for sanitary and therapeutic controls, complete HACCP plans, and accurate record keeping, but now address the additional waste products from fish species, and limits on oil and grease in effluents. The product-sampling procedures for food safety verification have also been clarified.

Auditors accredited by the Aquaculture Certification Council have already audited over 60 shrimp processing plants in Thailand, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, India, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Honduras, Colombia, and Madagascar as conforming to GAA’s Best Aquaculture Practices standards.

To continue in the BAP program, plants must be audited every year. As facilities certified under the original shrimp-specific certification standards come up for review, the plants will be evaluated under the new seafood standards. Their resulting BAP “seafood” certification will enable them to process all types of farmed seafood that originates from BAP-certified culture facilities.