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Sea Grant Study
Shows Impact of New
CONTACT FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Ken Gall, New York Sea Grant Seafood Education
Specialist,
631-632-8730, E-Mail: klg9@cornell.edu
Paul Focazio, New York Sea Grant
Communicator
631-632-9124, E-Mail: pfocazio@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
Ben Sherman, Sea Grant National Media
Relations
202-662-7095, E-Mail: sherman@nasw.org
STONY BROOK, NY- Seventy-seven percent of the
nearly 750 companies polled in a
recent nationwide U.S. seafood industry survey
said they would not have been able to
develop a plan to comply with new U.S. Food and Drug Administration seafood
processing safety regulations without the in-depth training courses conducted
nationwide under the auspices of the National Sea Grant College Program
and the National Seafood HACCP (pronounced hassip) Alliance.
The finding is part of a 65-page report on the
costs, benefits and impacts of HACCP on the
seafood industry that has been compiled by New York Sea Grant
and which was funded through the National
Seafood HACCP Alliance.
The report documents the extensive efforts Sea
Grant specialists across the country have
made to adequately educate the seafood industry in efficiently implementing
this new science-based food safety control system. The FDA regulation,
which became mandatory in December 1997, requires all seafood processors
and wholesalers in the U.S. and foreign countries that export
seafood products to the U.S. to integrate
HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control
Point) principles into their operation. HACCP is a state-of-the art approach
to food safety that requires food processors and handlers to identify
all of the potential food safety hazards associated with their operation
and apply science-based controls to prevent these hazards from occurring.
"Even though seafood industry leaders and the
regulatory community had been discussing
HACCP for years, it was clear that many seafood businesses did not understand
the HACCP concept and its practical application to the handling and
processing of seafood products," says New York Sea Grant seafood
specialist Ken Gall who coordinated the national survey. "For those
involved in the National Seafood HACCP
Alliance training program, it also seemed clear
that the program met an important need and played a key role in helping the
industry and regulatory community make the
transition to HACCP," notes Gall.
In 1998, approximately one year after the
regulation became effective, New York Sea
Grant and the New York Seafood Council conducted a survey of seafood businesses
in New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island to document the time, effort,
and resources that the regional industry had devoted to HACCP implementation.
Impressed by results from this survey, the National Seafood HACCP
Alliance funded Gall to distribute questionnaires to approximately
5,000 seafood companies across the country. A total of 744 seafood businesses
from 43 states and three territories responded to
the survey. Over half of these firms were
small businesses with fewer than 10 employees. Almost 60 percent
were seafood wholesalers or distributors and 35 percent were seafood processors.
Over 90 percent of the respondents felt that the
Alliance training course provided them with
the information they needed to develop a HACCP plan, understand
FDA's guidance information, and comply with the FDA seafood HACCP regulation.
Eighty-eight percent of the responding firms indicated that employees
from the firm developed their own HACCP plan, which averaged 68.7
hours to complete with a range from 0.5 to 1,200
hours.
Implementation Costly, But Benefits Worth Effort
The report also documents the costs of HACCP
implementation and the investments that
seafood firms made in time, equipment and infrastructure to meet
the requirements of the new regulation. Total costs averaged approximately
$17,500 per firm for the smallest firms and over $93,000 for
the largest firms in the first year. The
report indicates that the overall impact of
these expenditures was at least seven times greater for the smallest
firms as compared to the largest when reported costs were evaluated as
a percentage of annual sales. The seafood industry identified cost as the
major disadvantage to the HACCP system while
benefits included: (1) Better understanding
and confidence in the safety of their products; (2) Improved employee
cooperation; (3) Improvements in quality management; and (4) Greater efficiency
in overall operations.
"The intent of the national survey,"
says Gall, "was to accurately document the
time, effort and resources that the seafood industry devoted to implementing
the FDA's regulations. It was also meant to identify potential changes
or problems in the process as well as to plan for additional training activities
that might be needed."
Gall adds that considerable interest was expressed
in additional training courses that were
one-day in length or less on topics including current FDA guidance
on hazards and controls, sanitation, importer requirements, specific hazards
for bivalve mollusks and microbial hazards in ready-to-eat products.
Approximately two-thirds of the survey respondents felt they would take
advantage of training programs delivered via the
Internet. Gall is currently working on a
project to convert the basic HACCP training program to an Internet
based distance education course with funding support from the USDA's Cooperative
State Research, Education and Extension Service.
Individuals or groups can request a copy of
the full report by mail or fax. To obtain a
single copy via fax, send a complete mailing address and statement
requesting the "National Seafood Industry HACCP Implementation Survey
Report" to (631) 632-8216. The same information can also be sent by
mail to:
HACCP Survey Report New York Sea Grant 146 Suffolk Hall SUNY at Stony Brook Stony Brook, N.Y. 11794-5002.
The National Seafood HACCP Alliance for Training
and Education is a cooperative effort
involving
industry, government and university-based
Sea Grant programs across the country. The
Alliance's mission is to provide uniform education through training
courses designed for the diverse sectors of the seafood industry and the
corresponding regulatory inspection authorities. It is currently supported
with equal contributions from the National Sea Grant Program, the Association
of Food and Drug Officials, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The National Sea Grant Program is a network of 29
university-based programs in coastal and Great Lakes states involving more
that 300 institutions that provides
information vital to the wise use of our coastal resources through research,
extension and education. Sea Grant is supported by the U.S. Department
of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) in partnership with the states and private
industry.
Ben Sherman, Media Relations Coordinator
National Sea Grant College Program
841 National Press Building
529 14th Street NW
Washington D.C. 20045-2277
Phone: 202-662-7095 Fax: 202-662-7093
E-Mail: Sherman@nasw.org
WWW News Media Center Site: http://www.seagrantnews.org
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