18 Wet storage of bivalve molluscs The wording of the clause was questioned in one submission in regard to the use of the terms ‘effectively disinfected’ and ‘those conditions’.
The clause has been removed and a general reference made to ASQAP.
19 Co-mingling It is suggested that there be a change to the wording of this clause, specifically the word ‘lot’ be changed to ‘batch’ and the definition of batch included in the Definitions.
The Clause has been amended with the use of the word ‘batch’. ‘Batch’ has been defined in the Definitions under Clause 15.
A number of submissions also sought a strengthening of the co-mingling clause to take it beyond primary production and into the retail sector.
Industry members of the SDC supported the clause to prevent co-mingling and acknowledged this is generally in place in the primary production part of the chain. It was noted that there are no clauses to prevent co-mingling in Chapter 3 and that lack of traceability was flagged at OzFoodNet as being an issue for a whole range of products in relation to the investigation of food-borne illness outbreaks. The possibility of including a clause to prevent co-mingling in Chapter 3 will be investigated. However, the issue of an amendment to Chapter 3 had not been discussed with retailers during the development of the seafood PPP Standard. As a matter of priority, FSANZ will develop a separate proposal for the prohibition of co-mingling of high risk products at the manufacturing and retail levels.
