Wayne Mobley begins a 

 state inspection of an eastern North Carolina crab company, 

 he washes his hands in the picking room. 



Then Mobley glances around at elderly women sitting 

 around stainless steel tables, knives in hands, swiftly picking 

 meat out of steamed blue crabs. Signs are posted in English 

 and Spanish because many foreign workers will arrive on 

 special visas later in the year. 



"Those workers have a language barrier," says Mobley, 

 regional environmental health specialist, N.C. Division of 

 Environmental Health, Shellfish 

 Sanitation Section. "Some plants 

 have to teach workers how to 

 sanitize properly and the proper 

 way to use processing equip- 

 ment." 



While Mobley looks around 

 at the workers' aprons to make 

 sure they are clean, the women 

 continue picking crabs. Workers 

 must pick the meat at a rapid 

 pace. 



"The state law requires that 

 the plants have three-and-a-half 

 hours from the time the crabs are 

 placed on the table as whole 

 cooked crabs until the product is 

 cooled down in cups to 40 

 degrees," Mobley says of the 

 cooker-to-cooler cycle. 



Since crabmeat temperature is critical, he places a 

 thermometer in a cup of just-picked crabmeat. "The meat is 62 

 degrees," he says. "The crabmeat temperature usually stays in 

 the low 60s. During the summer, the temperature may elevate 

 slightly." 



Mobley then rubs his hand under a table and finds traces 

 of crabmeat. "This table needs scrubbing underneath," he says 

 to a supervisor. 'Tf a table is too dirty, I make the manager take 

 the crabs off the table and resanitize it." 



His inspection is thorough and precise. He even looks 

 on the floor to make sure no claws or crabs have fallen. And 

 he checks the machinery, from canning to pasteurization — 

 a cooking process that extends the shelf life of crabmeat. 



Throughout the plant, Mobley only finds a few minor 

 violations, including stray cats eating scraps out of trash cans 

 near the loading dock and a hose on the picking room's floor. 



"The crab industry is a big business and operates as 

 such," says Mobley. "We tell them what is required, and the 

 owners do what is asked." 



The state inspection — which is required quarterly for all 

 crab and molluscan plants and monthly while crab plants are 

 operating — is just one aspect of seafood safety in North 

 Carolina. From dock to processing tables to restaurant kitchens, 

 safety is a constant factor. 



All plants that process molluscan shellfish, including 

 clams, oysters and mussels, and all crustacean plants must 

 follow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) safety 

 program known as Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point 

 (HACCP). 



Initiated in 1997, HACCP 

 is required for all seafood 

 dealers, processors and import- 

 ers and aims to minimize 

 hazards in seafood — such as 

 histamine poisoning in certain 

 fish such as tuna — before the 

 seafood reaches the consumers. 



The N.C. Department of 

 Agriculture has an agreement 

 with the FDA to do HACCP 

 inspections of some of the 

 state's seafood facilities, other 

 than the shellfish dealers. The 

 department also monitors the 

 facilities' manufacturing and 

 housekeeping standards. 



Are the state and federal 

 regulations protecting consum- 

 ers from unsafe seafood? 

 "Fish and seafood from North Carolina waters are very 

 safe to eat," according to Barry Nash, North Carolina Sea 

 Grant seafood technology and marketing specialist. 



There is no documented evidence of illness caused by 

 North Carolina-produced shellfish and shellfish products, 

 according to the Shellfish Sanitation Section in Morehead City. 



However, there have been a few reported cases of a food- 

 borne illness related to prepared fish, says Joe Reardon, food 

 compliance supervisor for the N.C. Department of Agriculture. 

 In January 1999, Reardon says two people were reported ill 

 from histamine poisoning after eating tuna salad at a 

 Wilmington restaurant. 



For healthy individuals, the nutritional benefits of seafood, 

 such as Omega-3 fatty acids — which have been shown to 

 prevent heart disease — far outweigh safety concerns. The risk 

 of becoming sick from eating seafood is one in 250,000 

 compared to one in 25,000 from eating poultry, according to 

 the FDA's Center for Food Safety Study in 1991. 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 7 



