Traceability in the Fishing Industry

Article by Gordon C Norman of Nesco Weighing Limited, first published in Fish News International .
Why is everyone talking about Traceability?
The Fishing Industry is the last major food source that cannot in the majority of cases tell the consumer about
the product it is selling.
With the food scares involving meat, B.S.E., and foot and mouth, and the uncertainty about basic commodities such as drinking water and G.M. Food, the rest of the Food Industry has in the main put its house in order. Notwithstanding that improvements can still be made in the meat sector, the Fish Industry has a long long way to go.
Why should we bother with Traceability?
The media love to hype up food processing scares and processors in the Fish Industry are no exception. The stories that keep resurfacing about fish farms and the safety of aquaculture reared fish including the medications given to the products during the farming process, put doubts in the minds of consumers about the safety of eating farmed fish. Rumours of fish being caught in waters contaminated by radioactivity and toxic chemicals and entering the human food chain have been appearing in several publications and have been latched onto by pressure groups which each have their own agendas. All of this does nothing but harm to the industry. It will take only one big food scare story, whether it be true or not, to damage the Fish Industry nationally and internationally and affect the Industry's viability and profitability, potentially putting the livelihood of many thousands at risk.
What progress has been made?
Although some forms of traceability have been put in place by parts of the industry for some time, there has never previously existed a process by which information has been made accessible throughout the supply and processing chain. The E.U. therefore have decided that as from January 1st 2005 all fish products sold within the E.U. will be subject to appropriate traceability. The U.S.A. Food and Drug Administration is also looking to enact similar legislation in the U.S. in the near future.
In order for the European Fish Industry to comply with this legal requirement, in 2000 the E.U. funded a project called "The Traceability of Fish Products Concerted Action Project", known by those taking part as "TraceFish". The Norwegian Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture co-ordinated the project, which ran for three long but busy years.
The project brought together organisations, companies, and individuals from throughout the E.U. And Europe in general to form working parties to look at different areas of the industry to put together workable proposals that would be looked at during larger conferences held at regular periods throughout the project. The three groups were:
• The captured fish group
• The farmed fish group
• The technical group
The method of operation was that the captured and farmed fish groups looked at the supply chains and then passed on their observation of the links involved to the technical group, who then put together proposals as to how these links could be co-ordinated using modern technology. The technical group formed a sub group called the Technical Consortium that met at regular periods throughout the three years to plan and propose solutions to meet the other groups' requirements.
Nesco Weighing Limited was the only weighing system company to sit on the Technical Consortium, the other members mainly consisting of computer and software companies together with a small group of fish technologists.
From the beginning Nesco was able to bring a practical approach to the proceedings having been involved with the Fishing Industry for over thirty years.
The early proposals involved housewives having the facility to take a pack of fish and accessing its history via the Web but this was soon rejected by the more commercially minded members of the consortium. After three very hard years the final standards were presented at a conference in November 2002 and ratified by the project members for acceptance by the E.U. as an appropriate basis for the delivery of full chain traceability.
What did Tracefish produce and how can it be used?

Tracefish produced three standards that were developed for use by the industry. They are not the only way of achieving full chain traceability, but they are the only ones accepted by C.E.N. And E.A.N.
The standards lay down where, what and how data should be recorded in the farmed and wild caught fish chain for full chain traceability. They also identify how modern electronics and software can be used to transmit data through the chain and the standards to be used to successfully obtain the data if and when required.
These standards are formatted on a pull system, rather than a push system basis. This means that only the minimum amount of necessary data is pushed along the chain.
The majority of data is held at the individual point of action, whether that be a boat, auction, transport company, or processor. The only data pushed forward is the information required for labeling purposes or for commercial use by users further down the chain. All commercially sensitive information is held at the point of action and is accessible only by those parties who have authority to do so, e.g. food standards agencies.
The standards are based on a Global Trading Identification Number (GTIN), plus a batch number. The GTIN is unique, the first part is issued by the EAN (ID. of supplier) and the second part is allocated by the supplier (ID of product), The batch can be as big or as small as the organisation deems fit, or as much as they are prepared to risk having to destroy should the product be recalled. Full details of the standards can be obtained from Nesco or the TraceFish organisation.
What has NESCO done about Traceability?

Throughout the three year project Nesco contributed to the Technical Consortium and Technical Work Group, whilst it put in place a project for the development of innovative weighing, data input and software systems inline with the "TraceFish" standards. The result of that project was Nesco's "Traceway" Integrated Traceability System which contains all the necessary building blocks to provide full chain traceability throughout the whole of the supply chain. Traceway is not just a piece of hardware nor a software package, but an amalgam of both, creating an integrated traceability system compliant with the E.U. standard, but also designed for the individual application and the customers specific requirements. Traceway is a collection of building blocks, put together and configured for an individual process be it on board, at an auction, during transportation, or processing, at the fish farm, or during packaging for the retailer or end user.

The whole idea behind the Traceway System is to keep the process as simple as possible so as to enable the information to be accessed as easily as possible, as and when required and for the component parts to be compatible throughout
the whole chain of supply.
So what in it for the Industry?

In a nutshell, profit and substantial sales. If an organisation has the foresight to install a Traceway System, this is a tangible saleable benefit to their customers. The customer will feel confident about the source and quality of the product they are buying and that can be passed on to the consumer who can be encouraged to pay a premium for the product in the knowledge that the quality is the best available.
The reverse scenario is that should there be a food scare concerning fish and traceability is not in place, not only could the recall costs be crippling to your business, but the effect on ongoing business and loss of customer confidence could be catastrophic for both you and for the Industry in general.
Summary?

The TraceFish Project was established to ensure the industry had available a simple, integrated and practical system of traceability using the best technology. It was conceived to ensure that the Fish Industry did not find itself in the same kind of mess that engulfed the meat industry, which lead to loss of sales and customer confidence. Even now the meat industry does not have anything as comprehensive as the TraceFish Standards in place although we believe they are looking to follow our lead to adopt a similar system. Finally, the standards are there to help not to hinder. If we don't adopt them we run the risk of damaging our Industry irreparably.
30/10/2003
Gordon C Norman, Technical Sales Director, Nesco Weighing Limited ©