A team of technical inspectors from the European Union (EU) are set to inspect various facilities of tuna producers and processors in the Philippines to ensure their compliance with international quality standards.
Santiago Martinez, manager of the General Santos City Fish Port Complex, said the EU experts are slated to arrive next month or in March for a two-week swing on local tuna firms, especially those that have been exporting to EU member-states
.He said the inspectors will evaluate the compliance of the local tuna companies to various production and handling standards.
â€Our tuna exporters here are confident that they would pass EU’s standards,â€
As part of efforts to pass the EU accreditation, he said this early they are already strict on workers not wearing proper hygiene gears like rubber boots, hand gloves and hair nets.
â€Smoking and wearing of sleeveless shirts would also not be allowed inside the fishport,†he said.
Marfenio Tan, president of the Socsksargen Federation of Fishing and Allied Industries, Inc., said local tuna and other marine exporting firms have initiated expansion works to comply with the standard set by the European Union for this year.
He noted that last July, the EU inspectors also checked the facilities of the local exporting firms and found out they need improvements.
By 2006, the European Union reportedly wants to increase the allowable maximum lead content on fish to a higher 0.02 parts per million (ppm) from the present 0.05 ppm.
Lead is among the heavy metal contaminants that are being watched by the union. The presence of such toxic chemicals in the aquatic environment was earlier identified as the potential cause of contamination of fish products.
The European Union import regulation cites that “fishery products must not contain in their edible parts contaminants present in the aquatic environment such as heavy metals and organochlorinated substances.â€
Expansion works at the fish port complex is expected to be finished in May next year. The project is worth US$26 million.
The expansion of the 32-hectare fish port is reportedly geared at complying with the so-called Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP), a major consideration of the European Union for fish products entering its jurisdiction.
The HACCP is a systematic and preventive approach for the assurance of food safety and quality. It focuses on identifying the potential quality and/or safety problems to prevent hazards, the methods to achieve this and the mechanism to provide assurance that the preventive methods have been applied properly, the first time and every time. It is applicable to the fish production chain from harvest to consumption.