Seafood Country Of Origin Labelling (CoOL) – NSW Food Service Industry Trial
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$3,900.00
Summary
There are a number of proposals to extend compulsory seafood Country of Origin Labelling (CoOL), as currently exists in retail, to food service businesses. A number of stakeholder meetings have been held nationally and by individual states, to consider the proposal. There is a compulsory system in the Northern Territory and the NSW Government has agreed to consider the proposal for a CoOL scheme for seafood as part of its Fisheries Reform Package. The Restaurant & Catering Industry Associa ....There are a number of proposals to extend compulsory seafood Country of Origin Labelling (CoOL), as currently exists in retail, to food service businesses. A number of stakeholder meetings have been held nationally and by individual states, to consider the proposal. There is a compulsory system in the Northern Territory and the NSW Government has agreed to consider the proposal for a CoOL scheme for seafood as part of its Fisheries Reform Package. The Restaurant & Catering Industry Association considers that a concerted informational and educative campaign to increase the take-up of CoOL amongst food service businesses in the hospitality sector will deliver sustained results. Other stakeholders are not convinced that a voluntary system will work so have agreed to trial a campaign in NSW food service businesses during 2018 to evaluate the impact of such an initiative (intended and unintended). This project workshops the ToR of such a trial
Objectives: 1. To develop Request for Tender documentation to ensure an increase in the purchase and sales of seafood and increase consumer awareness of the origin of seafood in food service through an informative education campaign targeting food service businesses in NSW. Read moreRead less
Tactical Research Fund: Improving Efficiency In Generating Submissions And Consistency Of Outcomes For MSC Based Assessments
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$63,939.00
Summary
The Government of WA, in collaboration with industry, has initiated an ambitious program to have all commercial fisheries in Western Australia undergo MSC certification. All commercial fisheries will undergo pre-assessment by the end of 2014. Any fishery that chooses to undergo full MSC assessment will have the initial certification costs funded which will begin in 2014. A number of issues have arisen during the establishment of this process that need to be addressed prior to the end of the pr ....The Government of WA, in collaboration with industry, has initiated an ambitious program to have all commercial fisheries in Western Australia undergo MSC certification. All commercial fisheries will undergo pre-assessment by the end of 2014. Any fishery that chooses to undergo full MSC assessment will have the initial certification costs funded which will begin in 2014. A number of issues have arisen during the establishment of this process that need to be addressed prior to the end of the pre-assessment process and especially before many fisheries move to full assessment.
Direct experience with MSC assessment process for the rock lobster fishery, plus reviews of the MSC process (MRAG, 2011) have shown that once initial ‘scores’ or opinions have been established for a fishery, these scores and opinions strongly dictate the outcome and the subsequent level of conditions established for the fishery to either gain or maintain certification. In going from pre to full assessments, the scores may go down, but almost never go up (MRAG, 2011). Lower scores that require undertaking activities to ‘close off’ conditions, especially for Principle 2 (ecological) criteria is where the costs of MSC certification can become prohibitive These costs can be significantly greater than the direct MSC assessment or audit costs; for rock lobster this has run into many $millions. It is essential, therefore, that the number of 'unecessary' conditions, particularly those requiring collection of more information (which is the most common condition applied, MRAG, 2011) are minimised to avoid unnecessary costs for industry and government.
An additional complexity is the Fishery Standard Review (FSR) currently being undertaken by MSC. This has proposed changes for P1 and P2 whcih could significantly alter how we approach MSC assessments and therefore need to directly test the impacts of these proposed changes. Objectives: 1. Increase the efficiency of generating submissions for MSC assessments. 2. Minimise the likelihood of unnecessary conditions being imposed during MSC assessments Read moreRead less
Seafood CRC: Australian Seafood Compositional Profiles Portal
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$149,889.98
Summary
INDUSTRY NEEDS Seafood CRC participants need a common platform that provides easy accessible baseline compositional profiles in suitable formats about their products to enable them to meet their individual needs. The establishment of a secure web based portal will assist industry in identifying and removing barriers to uptake of labeling requirements.
The information needs to be robust, consistent and cover the minimum needs of the Seafood CRC participants for nutritional and contam ....INDUSTRY NEEDS Seafood CRC participants need a common platform that provides easy accessible baseline compositional profiles in suitable formats about their products to enable them to meet their individual needs. The establishment of a secure web based portal will assist industry in identifying and removing barriers to uptake of labeling requirements.
The information needs to be robust, consistent and cover the minimum needs of the Seafood CRC participants for nutritional and contaminant information. Existing information held by individual Seafood CRC participants will be able to be housed in the web portal. Additional testing beyond that in this project would need to funded elsewhere.
Where there is a need to develop new analytical capability this will be done outside this project in the related methods development project.
The project will assist in meeting industry needs for: - Promoting the public health benefits of seafood consumption more generally. - Rapid access to credible information to counter negative media claims. - Assist in addressing current and future technical market challenges. - Anticipate and quickly respond to market access threats.
NATIONAL ENGAGEMENT Seafood CRC participants require an expert facilitated process to undertake this activity. The panel fulfils a need of industry to have an entry point into national and international processes undertaken by State and Commonwealth agencies. Without the project the loss of market access share in international markets such as Hong Kong (due to labelling requirements being introduced currently) would be commercially damaging. For example the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) "Proposal P293 - Nutrition, Health and Related Claims" could be implemented with no seafood industry input or through this project a process of engagement with Commonwealth regulators could be initiated to secure industry outcomes. There is a need for any data capture activities to be compliant with FSANZ technical specifications. Objectives: 1. To establish by March 2010 a common scientifically robust information platform that provides Seafood CRC participants with timely access to information about the nutritional and contaminant compositional profiles of their traded products. Read moreRead less
The ability to distinguish hatchery-produced scallops from wild recruits is necessary to determine the survival and optimal size and time of deployment to the seabed in the scallop reseeding project FRDC 2002/48. Furthermore, to enable rigorous evaluation of commercial marine reseeding ventures, a means of identifying the released scallops upon recapture is required. Successful labelling of juvenile scallops will also allow researchers to estimate survival and dispersal of reseeded juveniles. ....The ability to distinguish hatchery-produced scallops from wild recruits is necessary to determine the survival and optimal size and time of deployment to the seabed in the scallop reseeding project FRDC 2002/48. Furthermore, to enable rigorous evaluation of commercial marine reseeding ventures, a means of identifying the released scallops upon recapture is required. Successful labelling of juvenile scallops will also allow researchers to estimate survival and dispersal of reseeded juveniles.
An identifying mark provides far greater sensitivity and accuracy than typical statistical-based assessment. There are a number of reported methods to discern hatchery produced animals but the methods we have chosen to test are relatively inexpensive and easy to apply to animals no greater than 4mm shell length (commercial release size). An alternative marking method, molecular analysis of scallop tissue, was evaluated and qualified opinions sought, but rejected on the basis of high expense and processing time compared with testing cheaper alternatives with demonstrated utility in other species.
Objectives: 1. To develop a method to mark hatchery reared saucer scallops to distinguish them from animals derived from wild populations. Read moreRead less
Improving Packaging Technology, Survival And Market Options For Kuruma Prawns
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$33,750.00
Summary
Objectives: 1. To evaluate the temperature stability of technically advanced live prawn (seafood) package design (prototype and finished item), under a range of storage, transport and climatic conditions. 2. To ascertain/confirm upper lethal temperature limit for kuruma prawns 3. Determine if modifications to the preparation and packaging operations are likely to improve the survival rate of packaging prawns from high ambient temperature growout conditions. 4. To establish ....Objectives: 1. To evaluate the temperature stability of technically advanced live prawn (seafood) package design (prototype and finished item), under a range of storage, transport and climatic conditions. 2. To ascertain/confirm upper lethal temperature limit for kuruma prawns 3. Determine if modifications to the preparation and packaging operations are likely to improve the survival rate of packaging prawns from high ambient temperature growout conditions. 4. To establish the potential feasibility of transporting live kuruma prawns from one location to another to optimise growout conditions and optimise quality through climatic agistment. Read moreRead less
An Independent Review Of Data Provided To Consumers By Organisations On The Sustainability Of World Fisheries
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$26,832.81
Summary
Across the world a number of organisations, usually of charitable status have established themselves as arbiters of sustainable fisheries. Some of these organisations are well constituted, have clear governance and peer review procedures and some quite are coming from different agendas. The sustainability assessment methodology they use to do this is wide ranging, and can be varied in quality with respect to regional variations, maintenance in the light of new data, and presentation of output. ....Across the world a number of organisations, usually of charitable status have established themselves as arbiters of sustainable fisheries. Some of these organisations are well constituted, have clear governance and peer review procedures and some quite are coming from different agendas. The sustainability assessment methodology they use to do this is wide ranging, and can be varied in quality with respect to regional variations, maintenance in the light of new data, and presentation of output. This review aims to compare the governance procedures and the output of range of organisations. Consider whether their output is current, scientifically robust and relevant to the fishery and rank the organisations according to a performance score.
Scope:
To review fish to eat, fish to avoid, traffic light schemes, accreditation and sustainability advice organisations in Europe and the US. Review to focus principally on organisations providing information to the consumer either in the form of branded ecolabelling (eg MSC, Friends of the Sea), or recommendation lists (eg MSC, Monteray Bay Aquarium) or information web sites (fish source) Monitoring, Delivery and Finance
The review would be financed by a consortium of international seafood bodies. The consortium would delegate the management of the review to a review panel which would be chaired by an independent senior academic. The review panel would agree the full research brief and methodology and put out to tender to a number of consultants and research organisations. The winning contractor would deliver the research and be monitored by the review panel. Results would be published in a leading journal such as Nature and be subject full peer review.Read moreRead less
Chemical Tagging Of Shells Of Commercial Stock Of Hatchery Clams
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$7,945.00
Summary
Objectives: 1. To find a chemiacl which can be utilised as a chemical tag of the shell organic matrix of a growth band in juvenile hatchery reared clams
Seafood CRC: Seafood Trade And Market Access Portal
Funder
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Funding Amount
$95,950.69
Summary
The project seeks to address a core need of Australian Seafood CRC participants for timely, simple access to international residue and contaminant standards, export certification requirements, tariff and customs information to support export activities. Currently this information does not exist in an easily accessible, simple format to inform industry of its technical market access needs.
For example, as a consequence of the melamine issue in China affecting dairy products Australian aq ....The project seeks to address a core need of Australian Seafood CRC participants for timely, simple access to international residue and contaminant standards, export certification requirements, tariff and customs information to support export activities. Currently this information does not exist in an easily accessible, simple format to inform industry of its technical market access needs.
For example, as a consequence of the melamine issue in China affecting dairy products Australian aquaculture exporters are now being required to demonstrate proof of absence in products (and in feed fed) by overseas port of entry authorities. The rapid emergence of the melamine issue has seen standards hurriedly imposed in markets including China and Hong Kong for seafood products. Melamine is symbolic of many traceability issues which are now starting to confront the seafood industry.
Industry needs better preparedness to respond to international market access issues such as cadmium in prawns in the EU. SSA facilitated a position at the CODEX meeting in Norway on cadmium in crustacea. The strategy was thwarted by lack of access to detailed standards and related documents (on standards in other markets etc). Similarly for arsenic in shellfish.
Lead content of tuna being exported to Japan was brought into question following a violative reading being reported. Further investigation found that the portion (tail fin) of tuna submitted for analysis.
The emergence of Non Government Organisation endorsements such as Friend of the Sea, Marine Stewardship Council etc are now introducing effectively what are private label standards for products traded in multiple standards.
The CODEX Alimentarius process is growing and there is a need to inform national delegation and working groups of specific individual country circumstances quickly. The marine vibrio issue that emerged in mid 2008 in Japan was swiftly resolved as the PI had access to Japanese documents and standards. Objectives: 1. Establish a web portal service on trade rules of countries importing Australian seafood (existing and future potential markets) - information will include residue and contaminant standards, export certification requirements and tariff/customs information for international markets of importance to Australian Seafood CRC members. 2. Inform the Seafood Access Forum (SAF) on current and emerging trade issues affecting international trade of Australian seafood products. Read moreRead less