Dar seafood ppp standard

Other crustaceans – redclaw crayfish, marron, yabbie and scampi

Redclaw crayfish, marron and yabbie are native species of crustaceans that are produced and consumed in Australia. Redclaw are native inhabitants of the rivers of north-western Queensland and the Northern Territory, marron inhabit the river systems of Western Australia, and yabbie are widely distributed throughout central and southern inland Australia.

Commercial ventures for production of these species exist in various states, including New South Wales, Western Australia, Victoria and South Australia for marron and yabbie, and Queensland and the Northern Territory for redclaw.
Redclaw and marron are produced solely through aquaculture, where they are typically cultured in earthen based ponds. Yabbies are also grown in purpose built ponds, though the primary method of procuring this species is via trapping what are essentially wild yabbies from farm dams.
Feed sources for cultured product typically involve a combination of the natural foods found in ponds, and commercial feeds such as crayfish or marron pellets. The primary food source for yabbies is generally crop plants, such as clover, which are grown in the dams they inhabit, though supplementary feed may also be added, and is considered essential to obtain higher than natural yabbie production.
Harvesting of stock may take place using a number of methods. Marron ponds are generally drained to allow collection by hand. Redclaw may be collected from growth ponds in a similar manner, or harvested using bait traps, though the most popular and effective method is thought to be the application of a flow-trap. The primary method of harvesting yabbies from dams involves bait pots or traps, or collection after draining. Drop nets can also be used, however it is generally recognised that harvesting yabbies from dams by seine netting damages the animals and can result in bacterial infection from mud stirred up from the bottom [13].
After collection, the harvested animals undergo cleaning. Harvested stock are gill washed and held in purging tanks for a period between twenty-four and forty-eight hours to prevent mortality due to bacterial infections arising from bottom sediments trapped in the gill chamber, and also to allow purging of the hindgut. Produce are then held in a cool, moist atmosphere, and prior to transport are packed between layers of packaging, generally consisting of foam rubber, or wood shavings, in polystyrene boxes with cool packs or ice bottles. Stock can live for many days out of water, and can be shipped alive if transported in a cool, moist atmosphere.
Redclaw, marron and yabbie are sold primarily as live export product. Some product is retained for domestic consumption; however, there is little retail sale of the raw product. There are typically three steps in the domestic marketing chain: producer, wholesaler and restaurateur. Only a small portion of product undergoes processing, though some cooking and freezing does take place.
The hazards potentially encountered during aquaculture production of redclaw, marron and yabbie are the same as those described for farmed prawns. These include the various chemicals and microbes that may be present in, or added into, the contained water environment. As these three species are predominantly sold live, either on export markets or for domestic consumption through restaurants, minimal processing of the product takes place. Exposure to processing hazards is therefore minimal. However, appropriate conditions (a cool, moist atmosphere) must be maintained during transport and storage of live product to avoid mortality of stock. Dead stock may easily fall prey to contaminating microbes, and cross contamination to live stock packed in close proximity would then be possible.
Scampi are commercially fished in north-western waters of Australia, with some species spreading along the northern coast of Western Australia. They are a demersal species, generally inhabiting burrows, and are caught in demersal trawlers similar to those used for prawns. Scampi are graded, packed and frozen whole on board trawling vessels. They are sold on both the domestic and export markets. Volume of catch has varied in the past two decades between ca. 50–200 tonnes/annum [11,12].
Environmental and on-board processing hazards potentially encountered by scampi are similar to those described for wild-caught prawns from marine environments. Endogenous bacteria that are human pathogens (for example, Vibrios and A. hydrophila) and environmental contaminants (arsenic and mercury) are potential hazards. Post-harvest handling, processing, transport and storage potentially introduce and allow outgrowth of human enteric pathogens (E. coli, S. aureus, Campylobacter, Shigella, Yersinia and Salmonella spp., and noroviruses and hepatitis A virus) and L. monocytogenes.