Safety, Product Development Are Priorities for Seafood Industry

Hedlund explains that these standards are audited for GAA by third-party certification bodies, of which there are six currently. “We train their auditors regularly to ensure every audit is fair, objective, and traceable,” he says. “Our standards are scientific, rigorous, and always evolving to meet challenges in aquaculture.”

As of the end of 2018, some 2,200 facilities in 35 countries on six continents are expected to be certified against the BAP program, Hedlund reports. “Our standards cover virtually 100 percent of the finfish, crustacean, and mollusk species produced in aquaculture settings around the globe,” he elaborates. “While there are other organizations that offer aquaculture auditing services, BAP is the most comprehensive and is the only one that covers food safety.”

Hedlund clarifies that BAP addresses food safety for aquaculture facilities—the process, not the food. “The ultimate goal with the BAP program is that the fish are born in a BAP-certified hatchery, raised on a BAP-certified farm, fed feed from a BAP-certified mill, and processed in a BAP-certified plant,” he relates.

More than 150 retail and food service companies worldwide are publicly committed to sourcing seafood from BAP-certified facilities, Hedlund says.

“We believe being BAP certified demonstrates that a member of the seafood chain is committed to the environment, social integrity, and the health of the animal and consumer,” he emphasizes.

Hedlund mentions that the BAP seafood processing plant standards have been expanded to include wild seafood, and those new standards will be publicly available early in 2019. “That means plants that handle both wild and farmed seafood will be able to apply for BAP certification,” he says.

Resource Utilization: Gone to the Dogs

There’s definitely something fishy about the new product in development for canine consumers at the Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center, a component of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. “We are making high-end dog treats from pollock skins,” says Chris Sannito, MS, an Alaska Sea Grant seafood technology specialist with this center in the city of Kodiak, the main community on Kodiak Island.

“Currently, with pollock fillet production, only about 25 percent of the fish is recovered for consumption after harvest,” Sannito notes. “Millions of pounds of product are either discharged as waste or processed for fish meal. But pollock is a valuable resource in our state, and pet treats can be a much higher-value commodity than fish meal, so our goal is to increase pollock’s utilization by adding further value to this fish.”

Prior to starting his current position in March 2015, Sannito worked with UAF faculty on a research project funded by the Pollock Conservation Cooperative Research Center, which focuses on the commercial fisheries of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands. The goal was to determine whether pollock skins could be turned into a product that was tasty to dogs, easy for humans to handle, and shelf-stable for at least six months.

After some experimentation, Sannito determined that extrusion was the most viable manufacturing method for producing pollock pet treats. “At first, we tried a forced air drying oven, but found this would be cost prohibitive due to the amount of labor required to prepare the material for drying,” he explains. “Compared to drying, extrusion offers the major benefits of labor efficiency, improved product recovery, and precise control of temperature, shape, texture, moisture, and color. While pollock skins seem to be an inherently good pet treat medium, because of their small size and difficulty in handling, we’ve determined a reformed treat is more practical than a whole, dried skin.”

These extrusion determinations came about in July 2016, when Sannito shipped 500 pounds of frozen fish skins via FedEx to the Clextral pilot plant, Tampa, Fla. (Clextral manufactures extrusion equipment at its headquarters in France.)