Dar seafood ppp standard

3.4 Food safety and exported seafood

Seafood exports must comply with national legislation for export control administered by AQIS. This legislation includes the Export Control Act 1982, Export Control Prescribed Goods (General) Orders and more specifically the Export Control (Processed Foods) Orders. These provide Government-to-Government certification to assist in fulfilling importing country food safety requirements and trade description for seafood exports.

Export processing establishments (including some vessels) must be registered by AQIS and have, as a minimum, procedures to address the risks associated with the processing of different seafood products to assure an appropriate level of food safety. International market access for Australian fish product exports are facilitated and maintained through this process, and the country’s competitive position as a supplier of safe products is enhanced.
AQIS systems for exported seafood are based on the auditing of processing of seafood managed under two approved arrangements. The two systems currently available are:

• 
  Approved Quality Assurance (AQA) - based on the company having a fully documented quality management system (similar to ISO 9002 but including technical standards) audited by AQIS at least twice a year.
  
  
  
• 
  Food Processing Accreditation (FPA) - a simpler system than AQA, requiring only documentation of a process flow chart and HACCP plan, and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), which is managed as part of a premise’s registration. Registered establishments are audited at a frequency based on the risk rating of their products, past compliance with their documented system and legislative standards.
  

3.5 Summary of regulation of the Australian seafood sector

The existing regulatory arrangements for domestically produced, imported and exported seafood are summarised in Table 3.

There is no nationally consistent approach to seafood that obliges all of the industry to manage the safety of their product at the primary end of the food chain. The fragmented, and at times voluntary nature of existing management systems, creates gaps and an uneven approach to food safety.
Table 3: Seafood regulation in Australia

Sector è Market ê	PRIMARY PRODUCTION Catching Sector and Aquaculture	PROCESSING AND TRANSPORT	RETAIL AND FOOD SERVICE
Exports	Export Control (Processed Food) Orders - HACCP based-food safety programs required.	Export Control (Processed Food) Orders - HACCP based-food safety programs required.	Not applicable
Domestic seafood	Variable regulation: - NSW and Vic regulate primary production sector of the seafood chain requiring food safety programs. - Various industry food safety and quality assurance guidelines, schemes and codes. - Shellfish growers required to meet ASQAP requirements	State and Territory legislation (including requirements of Code). Requirement for good hygiene practices etc. - Considerable variation as to what point in the supply chain the Food Safety Standards apply. - Various industry food safety and quality assurance guidelines, schemes and codes.	State and Territory legislation (including requirements of Code). Requirement for good hygienic practices etc. - More consistent application except in Victoria, where food safety programs are mandatory. - Various industry food safety and quality assurance guidelines, schemes and codes.
Imported seafood	In country production requirements. - Some AQIS certification requirements in place e.g. fish products imported from Thailand.	In country production requirements. - Some AQIS certification requirements in place e.g. fish products from Thailand.	Imports are evaluated by AQIS against requirements of the Imported Food Inspection Scheme and the Code and inspected and tested for compliance to the Code. Seafood from New Zealand operates under the Trans Tasman Mutual Recognition Agreement and the Imported Food Control Act of 1992 applies the standards in the Code to risk categorised food imported from New Zealand.

4. Regulatory problem

Before Governments act to regulate any sector of business, it is necessary to describe what the regulatory needs are – ‘the regulatory problem’.

4.1 Growing global burden of food-borne illness

Australia and most other countries in the world, as well as the World Health Organization (WHO)¹⁰, recognise the increasing burden of food-borne illness worldwide. The growing burden of food-borne illness may be attributed largely to a rapidly changing global environment. The growth in global food trade – where food grown in one country can now be transported and consumed halfway across the world, changing patterns of food production and distribution, and evolving consumer preferences for food are some of the elements of the changing environment and it is likely that these will continue in the future. These changes create an environment that favours the emergence and re-emergence of new pathogens and contaminants in food, and the resulting food-borne illness in our population.