by
Lahsen Ababouch
Chief, Fish Utilization and Marketing Service
FAO, Fisheries Department
Rome, Italy
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Abstract Food safety must be an integral part of any food security program. Unfortunately, in many developing countries, food safety and quality programs have received very little attention. In fact, in most exporting countries, the meagre resources and international support have been used to ensure fish safety and quality for fish export, while domestic markets have received very little or no attention. This paper addresses the issue of fish safety and quality as it pertains to food security. |
1. INTRODUCTION
The importance of safety and nutritional quality for food security was highlighted at the different fora where the issue of the impact of international fish trade on food security has been discussed.
The code of conduct for responsible fisheries (Article 11.2.15) of the code of conduct stipulates that “aid agencies, multilateral development banks and other relevant international organizations should ensure that their policies and practices related to the promotion of international fish trade and export promotion do not result in environmental degradation or adversely impact the nutritional rights and needs of people for whom fish is critical to their health and well-being and for whom other comparable sources of food are not readily available or affordable. Provisions 11.1.2, 11.1.3 and 11.1.4 encourage States to establish and maintain effective national safety and quality assurance systems, to promote the implementation of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) standards and codes of practice and cooperate to achieve harmonization or mutual recognition, or both, of national sanitary measures and certification programmes”.
Declaration of the World Food Summit defined food security as existing “When all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preference for an active healthy life”.
Presently, FAO is studying a comprehensive approach to biosecurity in food and agriculture, including fisheries and forestry. In this approach, “biosecurity encompasses all policy and regulatory frameworks (including instruments and activities) to manage risks associated with food and agriculture (including relevant environmental risks). Biosecurity is composed of three main sectors, namely food safety, plant life and health, and animal life and health”.
While these excerpts emphasize clearly the importance of fish safety and nutritional quality as integral components of food security, not many studies or investigations have addressed the issue holistically, with its socio-economic as well as its technical dimensions. Furthermore, there is a risk that for many developing countries which have been facing a plethora of problems and fiscal crises, the resources have been targeting mostly economic reform and liberalization, while the social categories, including food safety and quality programs, have not been given the necessary attention.
There is even a very considerable risk that some developing countries have used the meagre resources and international support to ensure fish safety and quality for fish export, while domestic markets have received very little or no attention.
This presentation hopes to address the main issues pertinent to the impact of fish safety and quality on food security, particularly in developing countries.
2. BACKGROUND AND ISSUES
The nutritional attributes of fish are highly praised. Fish is rich in the essential amino acids, has high quality vitamins and its fatty acids fraction has well established health benefits (anti-thrombotic activity). Therefore, its availability in many developing countries should enable fish to contribute significantly to a healthy and balanced diet in these countries. It is estimated that around 60 percent of the population in many developing countries derive over 30 percent of their animal protein supplies from fish, while almost 80 percent of the population in most developed countries obtain less than 20 percent of their animal protein supplies from fish.
However, these figures may be changing rapidly. Indeed, the demand in the developed countries is ever increasing because of the increased awareness of the health benefits of fish and the recent sanitary problems of beef and poultry. But, the ensuing fish prices increase may jeopardise fish supplies in developing countries. Securing fish availability, quantitatively and qualitatively, in developing countries is a complex issue, with different facets, including fish safety and quality, which depends closely on the fish post-harvest changes.
2.1 Fish Safety
When harvested in a clean environment and handled hygienically until consumption, fish is very safe. Unfortunately, unhygienic practices, insufficient refrigeration and sub-standard manufacturing practices can be at the origin of many outbreaks of fish-borne illnesses.
According to the WHO, the estimated annual mortality of food and water-borne infectious diseases in developing countries amounts to the sad high of 2.1 million deaths, mainly of infants and children. In industrial countries microbiological food borne illnesses affect up to 30 percent of the population. Every year 20 out of each million inhabitants die from food borne disease. Unwholesome fish and fishery products cause up to 30 percent of the food-borne illnesses.
Around 40 million people in Asia are affected by fish and water borne parasitic diseases, especially trematodes. These parasitic diseases are widespread mainly in China, Viet Nam, Thailand and Laos, where food habits encourage the consumption of raw fish. In addition to the economic losses incurred because of fish spoilage, fish-borne illnesses can have costly health adverse effects, the loss of productivity, medical expenses and the adverse publicity to the companies. Additional costs in international trade include the cost of rejections, detention of products, recalls and the resulting adverse publicity to the industry and even to the country.
Some examples of the economic impact of infectious food borne disease out-breaks, show that the consequences of cost reduction measures can be grave. An outbreak of cholera in Peru in 1991 cost 770 million dollars, a similar outbreak in Tanzania in 1998, 36 million dollars. The costs, or rather losses, are caused by, for instance, declining tourist revenues and exports of food commodities. Simple preventive measures and effective surveillance systems at a fraction of these costs might have prevented these outbreaks, or would have definitely reduced the impact thereof.
2.2 Post-harvest Losses
The generally acknowledged limits of production from capture fisheries, coupled with the widening gap between the supply and demand of fish for human consumption, reaffirms that post-harvest losses are an unacceptable waste of scarce natural resources.
Post-harvest losses of fish occur in various forms. Physical fish loss is caused by poor handling and preservation, or the discarding of by-catch. Economic loss occurs when spoilage of wet fish results in a value-decrease or when there is a need to reprocess cured fish, raising the cost of this operation. In addition, inadequate handling and processing methods can lead to nutritional loss. Similarly, the processing of large quantities of fish catches into animal feeds can be considered, under certain conditions, as a "loss" for human food security.
Post-harvest losses in small-scale fisheries can be very significant. Fish losses caused by spoilage account for around 10 percent (10 to 12 million tonnes per year) of the total production from capture fisheries and aquaculture. Appropriate preservation methods can significantly reduce this loss, including from glut catches when the processing, distribution and marketing system cannot cope with the great quantities of fish that are landed due to seasonal or inter-annual variations of availability or abundance.
Physical loss also results from the discarding of by-catch. A particularly sensitive issue is the discard resulting from finning of sharks, where the discarding of the whole animal at sea is considered both wasteful and unethical.
But loss due to discards is especially significant in shrimp trawl fisheries, where the proportion of co-occurring species caught incidentally is very high and can reach 95 percent of the total material taken on board. Bycatch contains a variety of fish sizes and species and is often thrown back at sea, except in densely populated areas of many developing countries where it is largely used for local consumption. Some, particularly larger fish, could be landed and sold on the main market, but even those fish are of much lower value than the shrimp. Chilled or frozen storage facilities on board the trawlers are limited and are mostly kept for the main target species. Sorting the by-catch would require additional crew time further reducing the financial incentive. It is currently estimated that around 20 million tonnes of fish catch are wasted in this way.
About 25 percent of the total inland and marine catch is still processed into fishmeal and fish oil, using mainly small pelagic oily fish such as herrings, sardines, mackerel, anchovies, pilchards, sand eel, and menhaden as well as offal from other more valuable species (e.g. tuna). Recycling fish catches as feeds for poultry or pigs results in a net loss because there is a need for three kg of edible fish to produce approximately one kg of edible chicken or pork. In the most efficient aquaculture systems, five kg of edible fish are needed to produce one kg of cultured carnivorous fish. Therefore, while fishmeal and oil are the result of acceptable and efficient fishing strategies, they are often considered a "loss" from a food security perspective. Ideally, reduction into fishmeal and oil should only occur when it is not economical or practical to utilize fish for direct human consumption. This may happen, for instance, when preservation technology is not available, the distribution chain is inadequate or food habits do not encourage human fish consumption.
2.3 Value Addition Processes
In addition to preservation, fish can be processed into a wide array of products to increase its economical value. In addition, value processes may generate further employment and hard currency earnings. This is presently driven by societal changes in the developed world (and some developing countries) that have led to the development of outdoor catering, convenience products and food services requiring fish products ready to eat or requiring little preparation before serving.
However, despite the availability of technology, careful consideration should be given to the economical feasibility aspects, including distribution, marketing, quality assurance and trade barriers, before embarking on a value addition fish process. More importantly, investment to develop value addition industry should consider environmental impacts and ensure a fair distribution of the accrued value among the stakeholders along the food chain. Preliminary studies indicate that most of the value is made in the importing countries under the form of marketing and distribution services, or for purchasing materials, e.g. for packaging.
In FAO, studies are underway for different value addition processes to delineate the distribution of costs and benefits along the whole food chain for different fish species and products. The results of these studies should enable FAO to advise properly developing countries to invest on the most profitable value addition processes and to guide the CFC (Common Fund for Commodities) sponsored work of FAO on fish value addition.
3. PERSPECTIVES AND FUTURE WORK
3.1 Fish Safety
In most developing countries, food and fish safety systems desperately need improving. Safer food has many benefits: less human suffering from food borne diseases, lower cost of public health, fewer barriers to world trade, lower loss of product and labour productivity and better overall food security. All of these have direct or indirect implications for food security.
While recognizing that ultimately each nation must take action itself to upgrade its food control systems, it must also be recognised that substantial financial assistance apart from technical assistance is required for capacity building by developing countries, though the nature and extent may vary with different countries.
To do this, a comprehensive evaluation and reorganization of fish inspection and control systems is required in order to improve efficiency, rationalize the use of human resources and harmonize approaches. This evaluation of fish control systems leads to the implementation of a preventative approach based on risk analysis and on the HACCP principles, away from the traditional approach that relied heavily on end-product sampling and inspection.
At the regional and international levels, economic groupings and international organizations develop regulations, agreements and guidelines to enable countries and regional groupings to develop fish quality and safety approaches that ensure consumer protection without constituting disguised trade barriers. This can be achieved only by promoting a harmonized, transparent and scientifically based approach. However, developing and developed countries face different challenges in this regard.
Fish quality/safety - developed countries
In the developed world, the increasing introduction of intensive agriculture and animal husbandry technologies has made food another industrial product. Extensive distribution systems allow for rapid and widespread distribution of food products with new emerging hazards because of the technological developments. The introduction of preventive safety systems such as HACCP is increasing and becomes more and more mandatory. Recall and market reputation become the deterrents rather than legislated punishment.
Preference for fresh and minimally processed foods, the increasingly longer interval between processing and consumption of foods, the rising trend of consuming food prepared outside the home, and substantial sourcing of raw materials and products from diverse areas all contribute to the increased prevalence of food borne illnesses ascribed to microbiological organisms. Actual outbreaks and food scares in the recent past has led to heightened consumer demand for safer food. This consumer outcry helped turning food safety into a political priority. The market compulsions of the private manufacturer and the Governments’ priority coincide to provide both attention and resources to this area and to stimulate development of the preventative HACCP-based food safety systems.
Fish quality/safety - developing countries
In developing countries, although most have national safety systems at varying degrees of development, the overall picture is rather different. Producers or processors are mostly small scale enterprises that developed informally, and exist in large numbers. Distribution and consumption is largely localised though large volumes of fresh food is traded in traditional markets. Food habits largely ensure eating of cooked food.
Rapid urbanisation has led to more and more people living in conditions of poverty, overcrowding and poor sanitation. There is an increasing emphasis on purchase and consumption of food from street food vendors and food services premises. The development projects do not include full ameliorative steps, and bring in their wake many industrial and environmental health hazards. And most important of all there is lack of awareness of food safety and hygiene.
In addition, these countries are facing a plethora of problems and fiscal crises. Attention has been largely focussed in the last decades on economic reforms and liberalization. Social sector development has suffered.
In the developing countries with an export-oriented agriculture and food industry, most of the efforts for capacity building have focussed mainly to the export sector. Multilateral and particularly, bilateral, technical assistance also tends to move in this direction. Therefore, capacity building across the nation has suffered. The most prominent example in this respect comes from the fish industry. Developing countries contribute more than 50 percent (in value) of the international fish trade valued at US$ 54 000. Many exporting developing countries have obtained recognition from the European Union Veterinary Commission for their satisfactory implementation of the EU safety and quality requirements. As a consequence, the current EU list I of third countries, from which import of fish for human consumption is authorized, totals 57, including 43 from the developing world, of which 13 are from Africa (EU, 2002).
3.2 Post-harvest Losses
Reducing post-harvest losses requires wiser use of resources, reducing spoilage and discards and converting low-value resources, which are available on a sustainable basis, into products for direct human consumption. Reducing spoilage requires improved fish handling on board, processing, preservation, and transportation, all of which are particularly deficient in small-scale fisheries.
With increasing fish scarcity, the problem of discards tends to resolve itself at least partially as new species previously deemed commercially inferior, are progressively integrated into consumer feeding habits and markets. This is insufficient however, and efforts are needed to use more appropriate technologies systematically, such as square mesh, by-catch excluder devices, turtle-excluder devices, bird and cetacean scaring devices in long-line and driftnet fisheries respectively.
Progress is also required in processing low-value fish for human consumption. Another source of underutilized species is the meso-pelagic fish. As the stocks of the more popular and accessible fish are becoming fully exploited, one way of relieving the shortage of fish could be the exploitation of the less accessible meso-pelagic fish. However, practicable and cost effective catching methods have to be developed. Then, acceptable products should be developed at a reasonable cost. The need to decrease all forms of waste and to optimize the use of fisheries resources for human food security is embedded in the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, as well as in the UN Fish Stock Agreement.
To reduce spoilage, FAO has implemented for many years a wide range of activities, including training fish technologists in developing countries, to introduce appropriate technologies, especially for small-scale fisheries. Using insulated fish containers and training people on their design and construction, have enabled many countries to increase fishing trip duration, while keeping fish iced for a longer period of time. Many countries have extended the concept of insulated containers to the distribution system. Some use local insulating materials such as coconut fibre, sawdust or rice husks for building containers transported on bicycles or mules.
FAO programmes have also aimed to improve handling practices, especially in small-scale fish landing sites, and fish preservation methods such as smoking, drying and salting. In this respect, FAO was able to adapt and ameliorate drastically the traditional fish curing methods used in many developing countries. For instance, a traditional fish smoking oven from Ghana, called the Chorkor, was adapted and re-designed to improve fuel efficiency, working conditions of the women who smoke fish, and the quality of the finished product. The Chorkor oven is now widely used in many other Africans countries. Over the last 10 years, many NGOs have taken an active role in disseminating these appropriate technologies in developing countries.
Developing products for human consumption from low-value resources
In many Latin American and Northwest African countries with abundant low value fish resources, several attempts have been made to increase the use of these resources for human consumption. The introduction of chilled or refrigerated sea water (CSW, RSW) technologies for on-board fish cooling has been successful in some countries. Despite its great promise in the 1960s, the production of fish protein concentrate (FPC) was abandoned many years ago, and efforts were shifted to develop new products acceptable for human consumption. Although the technologies for many of these, such as the production of surimi from sardines, have been developed, their acceptability for local consumption or their introduction on the international market have not often been given sufficient consideration.
Local food habits for local markets and sanitary requirements and marketing strategies for international trade are essential components that require adequate priority in product development. However, there is a change towards successful relocation of labour-intensive product value addition in developing countries. This is well illustrated by the salted anchovy industry, which has seen a major growth these last 15 years in North Africa and Latin America.
