Food safety in land-based shrimp productions : establishment of a HACCP plan at VegaFish AB

Abstract: The aquaculture industry is on a global scale becoming acutely aware of the demand for increased and intensified production systems to supply people with food fish. Moreover there are requirements for these systems to be more ecologically sound managements. As an attempt to address these concerns and after years of research, VegaFish AB has initiated an innovative project aiming to develop proprietary, highly cost efficient and environmentally sustainable systems for land-based shrimp production, based on the Biofloc Technology (BFT) system. The European food law requires all food processing operators to provide food fit for human consumption which contributes to the public health and well-being. The food law is based on a preventive approach through implementation of prerequisite programs (PRP) and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plans. VegaFish aims to meet not only the requirements of the international ISO 22000 standard addressing food safety but also the European Commission’s intention to extend the food law regarding primary productions by the establishment of a HACCP plan. Aquacultured products are in generally classified as low risk food in terms of incidence of food-borne disease outbreaks. Along with the fact that HACCP plans are not required, shrimp producers can seldom prove if any measures are taken to prevent food-borne dis-ease outbreaks. Nevertheless, it is of great importance to understand the potential public health risks associated with a shrimp production to be able to manage them in an effective way. By the establishment of a HACCP plan and PRPs, VegaFish will work with a preven-tive approach on food-borne diseases. The thesis aims to conduct a food safety hazard analysis and establish a HACCP plan for the shrimp production facilities in Uppsala and Bjuv and has been developed in collaboration with VegaFish. A number of control points controlled by the PRPs were determined along with one Critical Control Point (CCP) during the harvest regarding the need to keep the cold chain to prevent pathogen growth.