By Evelyn Watts
Historically, the U.S. Department of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was in charge of the safety of all seafood characterized products; however, in 2008, Congress moved the Siluriformes fish inspection to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA/FSIS). This effort started since 2001 when the U.S. Congress accepted a law to restrict the name in the label of ‘catfish’ only for species from the Ictalurus family farmed and harvested in the U.S. In late fall 2015, new rules and regulations were published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) pertaining to the inspection of Siluriformes fish (catfish, Chinese catfish, pangasius and basa) and became effective in spring 2016.
Under USDA’s final rule, Siluriformes processing facilities have to comply with facility standards, and develop and implement protocols and recordkeeping associated with Sanitation and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) to assure the safety of the product. In addition, under the Animals and Animal Products HACCP rule, Siluriformes processors are mandated to comply with the USDA requirement of instruction in the application of the seven principles of HACCP to meat processing (which includes Siluriformes fish), including a segment on the development of a HACCP plan for a specific product and on record review (9 CFR 417.7). To assist the wild-caught catfish industry, the Louisiana Sea Grant and the LSU AgCenter created a training curriculum, adapting the National Seafood HACCP Alliance curriculum to USDA regulations. This curriculum complies with USDA/FSIS HACCP training requirements, and is currently offered at the LSU AgCenter as a supplement to the Basic Seafood HACCP 2.5 day workshop (https://www.lsu.edu/departments/nfs/outreach/haccp-seafood.htm#p5).
Copy of curriculum, models, and supplemental information can be found at:
- Curriculum: https://nfs.lsu.edu/Seafood-Quality/documents/USDA-FSIS-catfish-compliancecurriculum-20190626.pdf
- Models: https://www.lsu.edu/departments/nfs/Seafood-Quality/documents/USDA-FSIS-Catfishmodels-20190530.pdf
- USDA Inspection Guidelines for Siluriformes Fish (Catfish) fast fact: https://www.lafisheriesforward.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/03/LFF_FastFacts_Catfish_12-2017.pdf
- Know your catfish and label it properly article: https://www.lafisheriesforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/CatfishArticleFinal1.pdf
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