Impact of Water Use and Reuse in Food Production and Processing on Food Safety at the Consumer Phase: Focus on the Fish and Fishery Products Sector

Feb 27, 2024 (2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Eastern Time)

Webinar Description

Organized by: IAFP's Water Safety and Quality PDG; International Food Protection Issues PDG ; Seafood Safety and Quality PDG

Clean water is essential to maintain the safety and quality of fish and fishery products. Product safety can be affected by physical, chemical and microbiological hazards introduced through water (re)use during production, handling and processing. Hazards and hazardous events need to be continuously monitored and may require targeted interventions to reduce consumer risks to acceptable levels.

The background to this webinar is the work of Codex Alimentarius on risk management guidance for water (re)use in the production, handling and processing of food commodities. Codex asked the FAO/WHO Joint Expert Meeting in Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA) advice on this. JEMRA established a science- and risk-based framework on fit-for-purpose water (re)use as input to the Codex work.

JEMRA experts will discuss the principles of this framework and case studies demonstrating how practical pre- and post-harvest interventions can mitigate product safety risks to consumers in the case of fish and fishery products.

Learning Objectives:

The participants will learn about the following aspects of water (re)use in the fish and fishery products sector:
The efforts of JEMRA and Codex to develop a risk- and science-based framework to manage the safe use and reuse of water in the production, handling and processing of fish and fishery products by following a "fit-for-purpose" approach.
The microbiological hazards potentially associated with water (re)use in production, handling and processing, and interventions that may help mitigate food safety risks at the consumer stage.
Case-studies from the JEMRA report that illustrate practical examples of current water (re)use in the fish and fishery products sector in different parts of the world.