Seafood CRC: protecting the safety and quality of Australian oysters with integrated predictive tools
Molluscan shellfish are high-valued seafood products that require careful supply chain management to guarantee both product safety and quality. Together, storage time and temperature exert the greatest influence on microbial food safety and must be controlled during oyster production, processing, transport and storage. The microbiological safety status of oysters is initially controlled by testing, monitoring and classifying growing waters as safe for harvest. As stated above, Vibrio species are a natural component of marine and estuarine environments, unlike faecal bacteria which are typically introduced into growing waters by land run-off. Consequently, it is prudent to assume that all live shellfish may potentially contain naturally-occurring Vibrio spp. Of these, V. parahaemolyticus is the most common species which can cause human infection if present in high numbers. This risk can be controlled by proper cold chain management, but may reach unacceptable levels with the loss of temperature control. This is particularly a concern for the oyster producer who has carefully managed the growth and characteristics of the oyster to yield the highest value, and who then looses control of value and the brand due to mismanagement down-stream. Even when human illness is an isolated event, the negative consequences can easily be spread across the entire industry. Thus, a proactive strategy is required to control and predict risk, with added benefits for also maintaining product quality. This can be achieved, in part, by producing a tool (proposed Refrigeration Index) that allows companies to monitor real-time conditions of the cold chain and thus the safety and quality of a highly-valued seafood product. The likely impact will include: 1) improved product safety, 2) an optimised cold chain, 3) higher product quality, 4) greater access to export markets and 5) a more cooperative regulatory environment.
Seafood CRC: Yellowtail kingfish juvenile quality: Identify timing and nature of jaw deformities in yellowtail kingfish and scope the likely causes of this condition
Seafood CRC: Southern Bluefin Tuna (SBT) Maturation and Sexing; develop and apply new technologies
Seafood CRC: "Passion for Prawns" - Benchmarking performance
The Passion for Prawns initiative has been developed in response to the industries key challenge of improving market value.
The Australian prawn farming industry has had a gradual decline in the average price recieved for its prawns over the past three to four years, and arresting and turning around this pattern is critical to the future success of the industry.
The 'Passion for Prawns' initiative will deliver investments across a range of activities all linked together with the shared goal of improving market value. By increasing the market value of farmed prawns the industry will significantly grow its value from its existing operational base.
This proposal which represents Stage One of the 'Passion for Prawns' initaitive will assist with creating the foundation for future activities in the intiative by identifying key measurable business performance indicators, and factors impacting on the performance of farms against those indicators.
By targeting our efforts through this preliminary work we will be better positioned to deliver nearer term outcomes.
Final report
The “Passion for Prawns’ Benchmarking Report has three distinct components. The first component relates to the collection of information pertaining to the production, processing and marketing practices currently undertaken by Australian aquaculture prawn growers. Further, this information has been used as the starting point for the development of a prawn industry specific benchmarking software tool that will allow for the ongoing entry of growers’ data and the calculation of both quantitative and qualitative Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). The benchmarking software is provisionally referred to as “PrawnBM”.
The second component of the report provides an outline of the key findings from the research that was undertaken with both post-farm gate members of the prawn supply chain as well as growers. In particular, it attempts to highlight the principal areas where CDIPM believes that the industry may benefit from investing time (and funds) that will allow the industry to achieve greater sustainability by providing a product that meets the needs of consumers. These focus areas can be grouped into cost reduction strategies, additional revenue generation activities and improved product quality activities.
The third component provides a series of recommendations on how the focus areas identified in the second component of the research may be undertaken by the industry, so that the industry and its members are given the tools to improve their economic performance and sustainability.