SEA 



SCIENCE 



installed computer-controlled devices 

 to monitor cooking times and tempera- 

 tures for his blue crab processing. 



"It's costing me a lot of extra 

 money," Johnson says. 



But it could be dollars well spent. 

 Seafood buyers, who purchase fish 

 and shellfish for restaurants and 

 supermarkets, are already telling 

 processors that they'll only buy from 

 plants with an approved HACCP plan. 

 It's an extra measure of quality 

 assurance that buyers want to provide 

 their customers, says David Green, 

 director of the NC State University 

 Seafood Laboratory. 



"Instead of FDA driving imple- 

 mentation of the HACCP regulation, it 

 is showing early signs of being 

 market-driven," Green says. 



To ensure that all processors are 

 as prepared as Johnson, the National 

 Seafood HACCP Alliance imple- 

 mented a national education and 

 training program for the industry. 



At the core of the effort was a 

 training manual developed by a 

 committee led by NC State University 

 food scientist Donn Ward. The 

 manual, written with FDA guidance, 



was edited, designed and printed by 

 North Carolina Sea Grant. As of late 

 September, Sea Grant had sold more 

 than 6,000 copies of the guide in the 

 United States and abroad. 



"It was absolutely imperative that 

 we develop a manual that readily 

 explained the HACCP concept in 

 understandable language and that had 

 FDA's Office of Seafood involved in 

 its development," Ward says. 



Using the manual, a cadre of 440 

 certified HACCP instructors have 

 trained more than 5,000 processors, 

 regulators, academics and consultants 

 who have attended alliance training 

 courses nationwide. By December, 

 alliance organizers estimate that more 

 than 80 percent of the seafood 

 processing industry will have received 

 HACCP training and certification. 



In North Carolina, Green and a 

 team of university and regulatory 

 instructors have trained 240 individu- 

 als in five courses co-sponsored by 

 North Carolina Sea Grant. An addi- 

 tional HACCP training course is 

 planned for Dec. 9-11 on the campus 

 of Carteret Community College. 



Meanwhile, Green's phone rings 



incessantly in his Morehead City office 

 as seafood processors call to ask 

 specific questions about developing a 

 plan, monitoring procedures and 

 recordkeeping for their plants. 



"It's been a big undertaking to 

 train the seafood industry in such a 

 short time," Green says. "But I think 

 the alliance, the university and Sea 

 Grant have made every possible effort 

 to help seafood processors prepare for 

 implementation of the HACCP 

 regulation. 



"I think we've been very success- 

 ful in our training, but that doesn't 

 mean we expect industry compliance to 

 be problem-free. We don't," he says. 

 "We (the alliance) will still be called 

 upon to help processors implement 

 their HACCP programs and to provide 

 feedback to FDA about problems." 



Johnson says his plant will be 

 ready for the December deadline. 



"At least now there will be some 

 recognition and understanding that the 

 seafood industry is working to produce 

 the safest and most wholesome product 

 possible," he says. "If it takes that to 

 make consumers feel good about eating 

 seafood, then fine." □ 



Vice President Al Gore 

 awarded the National Seafood 

 HACCP Alliance his National 

 Performance Review Hammer 

 Award on Sept. 22. Gore 

 gives the award to "partner- 

 ships that make significant 

 contributions in improving the 

 way federal agencies accom- 

 plish their responsibilities." 



More than 5,000 licensed 

 seafood processors in the 



HACCP Facts 



United States produce everything 

 from breaded fish sticks to smoked 

 salmon. These products use more 

 than 300 species of fish and shell- 

 fish harvested by nearly 260,000 

 commercial fishers. Last year, these 

 fishers landed 7.5 billion pounds of 

 edible fish and shellfish at U.S. 

 ports. 



• The Pillsbury Co. first applied 

 HACCP to food production while 

 supplying meals for the U.S. 



space program in the early 

 1960s. It found that its 

 existing quality-control 

 techniques did not provide 

 adequate protection against 

 contamination and that end- 

 product testing would be so 

 extensive that no food would 

 be left for space flights. 

 Instead, Pillsbury developed 

 a preventative program that 

 kept hazards from occurring 

 during production. □ 



COASTWATCH 33 



