623 results
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2011-734
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Seafood CRC: controlling biofouling of pond aerators on marine prawn farms

Biofouling of aeration equipment is a significant farm management issue and production cost for Australian marine prawn farms. Defouling aeration equipment has a high labour demand and once fouled, the energy efficiency of paddle-wheels and other aerating equipment can be markedly reduced, leading...
ORGANISATION:
Department of Primary Industries (QLD)
SPECIES
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2009-775
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Seafood CRC: prevention of muddy taints in farmed barramundi

End chain customers have learnt to expect muddiness in Barramundi and this causes a negative barrier to purchase. The impact of market perception is farmed Barramundi has remained at 7-$10/kg (farm-gate price) for >10 years, despite the species having an 'iconic' name with consumers. There is a...
ORGANISATION:
Department of Primary Industries (QLD)
SPECIES
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2006-308
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Investigating options to improve bycatch reduction in tropical prawn trawl fisheries - a workshop for fishers

Since 2000 the use of bycatch reduction devices (BRDs) and turtle excluder devices (TEDs) has been a mandatory requirement in most tropical prawn trawl fisheries in Australia. Despite this period of mandatory use, the number of BRD designs has remained largely unchanged and their performance can, at...
ORGANISATION:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2000-190
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Development of a business plan for enhancement of saucer scallops in sub-tropical waters

A working party of persons with technical and practical experience in scallop biology, hatchery technology, economics, management, fishing operations and processing technology was convened to develop a study on the feasibility of enhancing and culturing saucer scallops (Amusium balloti) in...
ORGANISATION:
Department of Primary Industries (QLD)

Evaluating effective quality monitoring methods for the Australian seafood industry

Project number: 1999-358
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $274,995.00
Principal Investigator: Sue Poole
Organisation: Department of Primary Industries (QLD)
Project start/end date: 25 Jul 1999 - 19 Jul 2004
Contact:
FRDC

Need

The need for effective control and monitoring of safety and quality is obvious following the crisis of confidence caused by the recent viral outbreak which sent shockwaves throughout the seafood industry. Test kits allow industry to control the QA process rather than just follow the recommendations of consultants. They also allow industry to decide the type of processing required and the end use of the products being produced. One example is if a processor can determine the amount of bacteria present on seafood and the storage conditions it has been exposed to when delivered by fishers then they can estimate the length of shelf life that the seafood after processing will attain. This information will also indicate what types of product can be produced. It is a waste of time producing seafood at the limit of an importing country's standards if there is going to be further handling before the consumer purchases it. The Australian processor's target should be mush higher than this.

The new statutory requirements for food safety plans and the increasing adoption of formal quality management systems, necessitate the development of quality measures that are relevant and quantifiable.

For industry to implement QA programmes, there is an essential need for tools by which to monitor the systems. Rapid test kits provide these tools, but are they appropriate and effective for the Australian seafood processing environment? This knowledge is crucial to successful adoption of AQ programme initiatives.

There is a special need for this information by existing small and medium sized seafood enterprises, as well as new players entering the market, who do not have the resources not time to assess available methods themselves. Information providers such as AUSEAS can only provide lists of test kits that may be available but they have no funds to ascertain which ones work reliably under Australian conditions. They have stated that they will not recommend anything they have not tested yet this is what industry really wants. Promotional material accompanying test kits usually does not warn of any limitations.

Three areas of need for objective analysis are identified.

Product specification
As QA becomes more widespread, there is a need to specify and quantify the quality parameters so they can be included in product specifications associated with contracts. Those parameters may be Physical (eg size grades), Chemical (eg K values), Bacterial (eg TPC's), or Sensory (eg Demerit scores).

HACCP and Food Safety Plans
To monitor the effectiveness of a QA program such as proposed by SeaQual and SQMI, an objective, reliable measure of quality is needed. There are few universal measurements of quality and many tests require laboratory facilities. A number of rapid test kits have been developed which reduce delays in obtaining essential information required for processing strategies. Not all kits available are effective or suitable. This investigator has appraised some test kits intended for identifying the presence of sulphite on prawns and found them to be very inaccurate. An assessment of test kits in the Australian seafood processing environment is essential to establish their suitability.

Disputes and Loss Assessment
At the Centre officers are sometimes employed by loss assessors to report on the condition of suspect seafood in the distribution chain. We use a combination of bacterial, chemical and sensory techniques. The use of test kits within the processing sector would clarify many of these disputes.

Objectives

1. Benchmark existing test kits for quality assessment for Australian Seafood species.
2. Assess the effectiveness of different techniques for measuring quality in the Australian processing environment.
3. Document measures of fish and prawn quality which can be assessed by test kits within the processing environment.
4. Disseminate the information obtained to industry in the form of workshops, printed materials and electronic format.

Final report

ISBN: 0-7345-0259-1
Author: Sue Poole and Steve Slattery
Final Report • 2004-02-17 • 849.22 KB
1999-358-DLD.pdf

Summary

A variety of rapid kit methods, both microbiological and chemical, have been evaluated with respect to their accuracy for and application to the Australian seafood industry. The information is now readily available for industry managers to base operational processing decisions on. 

A few kits demonstrated value for monitoring total microbial contamination levels within day to day processing line operations.  Additionally, two kits were successfully applied within industry for measurement of sulphite and histamine residual levels.  However, most kit methods were inappropriate in functional design or provided unreliable results which negate their usefulness for industry application.  The information gained is valuable for industry to base business management decisions on.  In line with this, summary précis for each rapid test kit evaluated will be available through the Seafood Services Australia website.

Industry response to the sulphite and histamine kits was very positive and several seafood processors have indicated they are using the histamine kit.  Additionally, negotiations are occurring with AQIS to have the histamine kit accepted by them as a standard method of testing.

Keywords: quality measures; test kits; rapid methods; seafood; fish; prawns

Adoption
PROJECT NUMBER • 1999-333
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Establishment of Seafood Services Australia stage 1 - extension and advisory services

This report covers the activities projects 1996/341 and 1999/333 for the period 1996 to 2000. In October 1999 AUSEAS along with the National Seafood Centre (NSC) and SeaQual were brought together under the umbrella name of Seafood Services Australia (SSA). To avoid confusion, for the...
ORGANISATION:
Department of Primary Industries (QLD)
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 1999-205
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

The effect of barramundi Nodavirus on important freshwater fishes

This project has confirmed the knowledge that management of barramundi translocations outside their natural range requires fisheries authorities take into account the risk that barramundi nodavirus may lethally infect native freshwater fishes. The project has shown barramundi nodavirus can...
ORGANISATION:
Department of Primary Industries (QLD)
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 1998-159
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Stock structure of northern and western Australian Spanish mackerel

Decisions about the allocation of management responsibilities for fisheries for narrow-barred Spanish mackerel, Scomberomorus commerson, as well as on-going stock assessments, require an understanding of the spatial relationships of the species. We used a suite of methods, isotope ratios in...
ORGANISATION:
Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (NT)
People
PROJECT NUMBER • 1998-129
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Stock assessment review workshop

A three day stock assessment course was presented by Dr Malcolm Haddon of the Australian Maritime College and Dr James Scandol of the Quantitative Training Unit for Fisheries. Techniques such as biomass dynamic and age based modelling were covered. Thereafter, a Stock Assessment Review Workshop,...
ORGANISATION:
Department of Primary Industries (QLD)
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2011-225
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Tactical Research Fund: using industry expertise to build a national standard for grading of live mud crabs

This project lead to a large number of outcomes that provided significant benefit to the Australian live mud crab industry supply chain. These include: Agreement on an easy to use, national, industry-driven, grading scheme for live mud crabs (the Australian Industry Live Mud Crab Grading...
ORGANISATION:
C-AID Consultants
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