A Stamp of Approval 

 for Tomorrow's Seafood 



By Kathy Hart 



HACCP. 



It's one of those bureaucratic acronyms 

 that doesn't tell you anything but means 

 a lot. 



It's being volleyed about in Congress 

 and analyzed in university food science 

 departments. In the seafood industry, it's 

 applauded, dreaded and misunderstood. 



The letters stand for hazard analysis 

 critical control point, an awkward phrase 

 that doesn't mean more than its acronym. 



Translated into everyday English, 

 HACCP is the mandatory inspection pro- 

 gram being proposed for the U.S. seafood 

 industry. 



Consumer advocate groups from coast 

 to coast have urged their congressmen to 

 pass legislation that would mandate an 

 inspection program for the seafood in- 

 dustry comparable to that used for red 

 meat and poultry. 



As demand for fish and shellfish has 

 spiraled upward, so has concern about 

 seafood safety and public health. The 

 media has focused increasing attention 

 on pollution in our coastal waters. And 

 consumers adding one and one to get two 

 have surmised that the catch harvested 



from these waters may not be as safe as 

 they'd like. 



But their addition may be faulty, says 

 Donn Ward, a seafood extension specialist 

 with the North Carolina State University 

 Department of Food Science. 



He says seafood safety problems may 

 be more a problem of perception than 

 reality. 



Just over 20 percent of all food-borne 

 illnesses reported to the national Centers 

 for Disease Control between 1973 and 

 1987 were attributed to seafood. 



But after you adjust for per capita con- 

 sumption and omit sicknesses related to 

 consumption of raw shellfish, the num- 

 ber of illnesses drops to 25 percent below 

 that for poultry and only slightly more 

 than that for beef. 



And even these figures may be too high 

 because they include illnesses caused by 

 fish caught recreationally, Ward says. 



"You don't stop on the side of the 

 road, shoot a cow, haul it home, clean it 

 and cook it," he says. "But a lot of peo- 

 ple do catch their own fish and shellfish, 

 and often they mishandle it." 



Illnesses caused by this mishandling 



