SEA 



SCIENCE 



Quality Key to 

 International 

 Seafood 

 Standards 



By Katie Mosher 

 Photos by Scott D. Taylor 



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J^*/eeing — and tasting — hybrid striped 

 bass was a treat for Durita Nielsen, of the 

 Danish Institute for Fisheries Research. 



Until her visit to North Carolina, she had 

 never worked with many of the species that 

 make up our coastal aquaculture and marine 

 fisheries industries. A native of the Faroe 

 Islands, located northwest of Scotland and 

 halfway between Iceland and Norway, she's 

 much more familiar with sealife in cooler 

 waters of the northeast Atlantic. 



But it was not her expertise in a specific 

 species that brought Nielsen to the North 

 Carolina State University Seafood Laboratory 

 in Morehead City. Rather, her visit, sponsored 

 by North Carolina Sea Grant, was designed to 

 share overall European quality assessment 

 methods. 



"North Carolina has a long history of 

 providing quality seafood. We want to make 

 sure that our seafood industry will be able to 

 sell the highest quality seafood anywhere in 

 the world," explains Ronald G. Hodson, 

 North Carolina Sea Grant director. 



Seafood safety — including intensive 

 programs such as Hazard Analysis and 

 Critical Control Points training — has been a 

 focus of the U.S. seafood industry in recent 

 years. But the industry also must match 

 international standards for quality of fresh 

 fish, adds David Green, seafood lab director. 



Thus, Nielsen arrived in North 

 Carolina to share the Quality Index Method, 

 or QIM, a standard established by the QIM 

 Eurofish Alliance in Denmark, the 

 Netherlands and Iceland. 



"The goal of this project is to improve 

 overall acceptability of fish by ensuring the 

 highest quality and best industry handling 

 techniques," says David Green, director of 

 the seafood lab. "QIM provides the basis 

 for developing national and international 

 markets based on agreed-upon standards." 



SETTING QUALITY 

 STANDARDS 



QIM sets objective measurements of 

 certain attributes or "sensory properties" for 

 raw fish, Nielsen explains. QIM can be 

 used to determine the shelf life — or more 

 specifically the on-ice life — of fish used in 

 processing or sold in markets. 



"It is very easy to use in the industry," 

 she says, citing the protocols established for 

 salmon, a major export for the Eurofish 

 countries. "You don't need to be a 

 scientist." 



In fact, even the consumer can use the 

 straightforward process. "Every household 

 could learn to use this method," Nielsen 

 explains. 



Continued 



26 AUTUMN 2002 



