Good Aquacultural Practices

Food safety has become an issue of increasing concern in the US. An obvious approach to assuring the safety of our food is to have the various government agencies with responsibility all foods against chemical and biological contamination. When one considers the enormity and potential expense of this task it becomes clear that it is not a reasonable approach. A better approach is to combine limited inspection with on farm education in good agricultural practices that will improve the safety of foods shipped from the farms. No where is this more important than in foods imported from overseas, production sources over which the US has little control other than shutting off imports. For exporters the potential closure of US markets is a strong incentive to cooperate. (In the last few years FDA has detained approximately 10% of the imported shrimp shipments at port of entry because they tested positive for Salmonella.)

Although aquaculture production controls are enforced in the United States, the majority of our aquaculture-produced seafood is imported. Shrimp is the most traded seafood product in the world. In the United States, shrimp imports represents 88% of the total shrimp consumed (the vast majority from aquaculture), 38% of the total value of all seafood products imported, and 29% of the value of all raw marine fishery products available in the U.S. marketplace. Shrimp is also the most consumed seafood in the United States, increasing from a previous record 1.68 Kgs per person in 2002 to 1.82 Kgs in 2003.

GAqPs in Vietnam

Find out more about the GAPs Training Program in Vietnam

Need for Good Aquaculture Practices training

The majority of the real and perceived concerns with the safety and quality of raw aquaculture products originate at the farm level. These concerns include pathogen contamination (e.g. Salmonella), chemical contamination, and misused or unapproved chemotherapeutic drugs. All of these risks generally occur at the farm level where there is currently little to no training or regulatory oversight. Seafood processors, in contrast, have all types of food safety training available to them and usually have their own safety and quality control programs; are required worldwide to comply with HACCP and GMPs; and must undergo regulatory inspections by officials at the local, state, and federal level.

There are a number of examples of illness from biological contamination of imported shrimp and the detection of unapproved chemicals (only one drug is approved for use on shrimp in the us, in some countries as many as 300 different drugs are approved.)

Advent of the Good Aquaculture Practices Training Program (GAqPs)

Once it was clear that there was a crucial need for a GAqPs training program, JIFSAN worked with the JohnsonDiversy Corporation through the JDIFSI to develop it.. A development and teaching team was formed consisting of seafood specialists from the University of Maryland, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, the FDA and JohnsonDiversey. The team developed the training program and a draft manual over a nine month period and offered a pilot program in Viet Nam on November 13-17, 2006. It is noteworthy that the pilot program coincides the President's visit, with approval of a bill to normalize US trade relations with Viet Nam and is prelude to its entrance to the WTO.