8 results

SSA core membership of the Australian Food Safety Centre of Excellence

Project number: 2007-240
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $30,000.00
Principal Investigator: Jayne M. Gallagher
Organisation: Seafood Services Australia Ltd
Project start/end date: 30 Jul 2007 - 1 Aug 2007
Contact:
FRDC

Need

The rapidly changing global trading environment is placing increasing demands on Australia's seafood
industry to demonstrate that their product is safe and that it will not cause illness now or in the future.
Meeting these demands means that seafood businesses need to understand and manage the food
safety risks associated with their products and processes.

Changes to the natural environment, including through increased pollution of the marine environment
has resulted in new and emerging food safety issues that need to be better understood to enable them to
be managed. Development of new products and processs designed to increase shelf life and improve
convenience to the consumers also pose food safety management challenges.

Meeting these needs individually would require significant investment. Tapping into a global network of
experts and undertaking research as part of a national food industry development effort will leverage
investment into these areas.

Objectives

1. As a core member of the Australian Food Safety Centre of Excellence, help build the Australian seafood industry's capacity to produce safe and high quality foods that meet market requirements, underpin standards development and risk communication and innovate in food safety management practices
2. As a core member of the Australian Food Safety Centre of Excellence, influence the direction of food safety research and development that benefits the seafood industry
3. As a core member of the Australian Food Safety Centre of Excellence, gain fast access to information and advice about emerging food safety issues and options for management
Industry

Tactical Research Fund: Conduct of a Seafood Incident Response Plan (SIRP) trial for the aquaculture industry in Melbourne as a prelude to the Skretting Australasian Aquaculture Conference (AA12)

Project number: 2011-259
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $25,760.00
Principal Investigator: Ted Loveday
Organisation: Seafood Services Australia Ltd
Project start/end date: 31 Mar 2012 - 29 Jun 2012
Contact:
FRDC

Need

Every time you fly, you listen to the flight attendant state, “In the unlikely event of an emergency, it is important that etc”. The message is continually reinforced so that, in the event of an incident, you will know exactly how to adopt the brace position and put on a life jacket.

Similarly, regular trials of the Seafood Incident Response Plan (SIRP) need to be held to reinforce industry awareness of its existence and ensure that the SIRP is responsive and relevant.

Australian seafood has an excellent reputation when it comes to food safety but we are potentially only one step from a disaster.

E.g. 22 December 2011 headlines “WA grown oysters off the Christmas Menu”. A headline such as this can have a highly detrimental effect on the Australian seafood industry if not properly managed. In this case, the SIRP was implemented as a level 1 emergency (Watching brief).

This does, however, highlight why it is important that the seafood industry is regularly reminded of the existence of the SIRP

SSA on behalf of the Australian seafood industry has been responsible for the development and ongoing maintenance of the SIRP.

The SIRP co-exists with other existing incident response protocols and provide guidance to the seafood industry as to how to respond and thus minimize damage to the industry resulting from an adverse incident.

This SIRP trial workshop is planned as a prelude to the Australasian Aquaculture Conference & Trade Show (1-4 May 2012, at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre)

A unique opportunity exists for key stakeholders to participate in the SIRP trial and attend the Conference.

The key outcomes from the workshop will be presented to conference delegates at Australasian Aquaculture.

The Australian aquaculture industry and associated supply chains will be the major focus of this particular trial.

Objectives

1. Industry awareness of the role of the Seafood Incident Response Plan will be increased and the linkages between the SIRP, the aquaculture sector, existing seafood recall plans, and emergency planning by food safety agencies will be tested.
2. A trial to test the responsiveness of the aquaculture sector and the wider seafood supply chain to a seafood incident will be conducted
3. The SIRP will be updated following the workshop to ensure that it remains responsive and relevant to today’s environment
4. Engagement with relevant food safety agencies will occur as the success of SIRP is about partnership and collaboration

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-9871787-1-8
Author: Ted Loveday

Project products

Plan • 2012-05-01 • 984.16 KB
2011-259-Seafood-Incident-Response-Plan-May-2012.pdf

Summary

Overview:

This Seafood Incident Response Plan (SIRP) was developed by Seafood Services Australia Ltd (SSA) in consultation with the seafood industry and relevant agencies to:

  • provide a proactive, easy-to-follow response to adverse incidents in the seafood industry
  • maintain Australia’s reputation as a provider of safe, high-quality seafood to its customers
  • strengthen consumer confidence in Australian seafood.

As a result of this project a seafood incident response plan was developed (framework with templates and forms) for use in the event of an incident. This can be downloaded below:
 

Download the Seafood Industry Response Plan

 

Industry
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PROJECT NUMBER • 2008-721
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

SCRC: Seafood CRC: Develop, conduct and analyse a small survey of seafood buyers at ESE 2008 to help assess the relative importance of key attributes of Australian seafood in influencing purchasing decisions.

This report details the findings of European Seafood Exposition survey conducted in Brussels in April 2008. The main purpose of this project was to survey perception that seafood traders / professionals of this industry have about 6 seafood producing countries, including Australia. We chose to use...
ORGANISATION:
Seafood Services Australia Ltd

The establishment of a training resource and information service to underpin the successful adoption of EMS by the Australian seafood industry

Project number: 2002-303
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $140,019.00
Principal Investigator: Ted Loveday
Organisation: Seafood Services Australia Ltd
Project start/end date: 16 May 2002 - 12 Nov 2004
Contact:
FRDC

Need

Significant progress is being made to build the capacity of the Australian seafood industry to enable it to respond effectively to the ever-increasing myriad of challenges, and the rapidly changing demands. Key developments in this area include the national ESD reporting system and several initiatives that facilitate the adoption of environmental management system approaches (ie. the Green Chooser project, EA Eco-efficiency Agreements, and the newly established FRDC EMS Initiative, etc.).

Now, a mechanism is required that capitalises on the investment governments and industry have made in these key initiatives, and brings together and extends the necessary expertise and resources (including information, learning materials and support) to improve the knowledge and skills base of persons engaged in adopting EMS and implementing the ESD framework.

The Green Chooser project (FRDC project 200/146) has provided particular insight into the key competencies required of persons engaged in adopting EMS. Importantly, it has highlighted that where particular expertise exist and provided a preliminary indication of the critical gaps in the skills base of the seafood community (industry and government).

FRDC, in creating its Environmental Management Systems Initiative (FRDC Project 2000/084), has also identified this need and has allocated funds to ensure the persons employed under this initiative and associated industry champions are appropriately trained for their roles.

This need is also reflected in the Seafood Training Australia’s Strategic Training Plan for 2001-2002, and the mid-review findings of the Seafood Industry Training Package Review which recommends a stronger emphasis on environmental awareness and promotion of ESD and environmental management throughout the training package.

Through a partnership between SSA, STA and Ocean Watch, this project (as part of the FRDC ESD Assessment and Reporting Subprogram) will address the need for timely access to information, appropriately skilled support and training in relation to EMS by:
(a) Providing an information and training resource to improve the knowledge and skills base of persons engaged in developing and adopting environmental management systems approaches in the Australian seafood industry;
(b) Delivering a training program to EMS Officers employed under the FRDC EMS Initiative, and associated industry champions; and
(c) Facilitating a network of industry members, government and non-government organisations involved in environmental management in the seafood industry to enhance information exchange in relation to key developments in this rapidly changing environment and encourage collaboration and partnerships.

Objectives

1. To underpin the successful adoption of environmental management systems and implementation of the ESD reporting and assessment framework by:a. Developing and implementing, in collaboration with Seafood Training Australia, training and information resourcesb. Providing EMS project officers, and associated industry champions and industry participants with the necessary knowledge and skills to carry out their roles and responsibilitiesc. Refining the "Green Chooser" tools and frameworkd. Improving SSA information systems to increase accessibility to relevant information and resourcese. Expanding the SSA network to include industry and government members involved in environmental management in the seafood industry.

Final report

ISBN: 0-9750915-4-9
Author: Ted Loveday
Final Report • 2004-11-18 • 5.91 MB
2002-303-DLD.pdf

Summary

Significant progress has been made to build the capacity of the Australian seafood industry to enable it to respond effectively to the ever increasing myriad of challenges, and rapidly changing demands including demands from the community to produce food in an environmentally friendly and safe manner. Key developments in this area include the national ESD reporting system and several initiatives that have facilitated the adoption of environmental management system approaches (i.e. the Green Chooser project, Environment Australia (EA) Eco-efficiency Agreements, and the FRDC State EMS Officer Initiative, etc.).

Through a partnership between Seafood Services Australia (SSA), Seafood Training Australia (STA) and Ocean Watch, the project (as part of the FRDC ESD Assessment and Reporting Subprogram) addressed the need for timely access to information, appropriately skilled support and training in relation to EMS.

SSA received strong support for this project from the Australian Seafood Industry Council (ASIC) and member organisations (representing all States and Territories), the National Aquaculture Council and member organisations (representing all States and Territories), the Seafood Services Australia Network, FRDC, STA, FRDC State EMS Officers, Oceanwatch and SeaNet.

A logical next step to the continuing extension and further development of the project outputs from this project FRDC 2002/303 lead to SSA securing funding through the DAFF Pathways to Industry EMS Program. This will ensure that the products developed under this project and other EMS initiatives undergo continual improvement over the coming years. 

Keywords: Environmental Management Systems.

Project products

Guide • 5.36 MB
2002-303-DLD-Green-Chooser.pdf

Summary

The Seafood EMS Chooser is the first step in deciding on what should be in your EMS. It provides you with an overview of what’s involved, without going into too much detail. When you have the big picture, it’s time to move on to the Seafood EMS Resources — manuals, a CD-ROM and a website — which will take you through step-by-step
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