FDA Trains Staff Ecuador’s Tuna Plantsff

A high level training program for canned food with low acidity took place earlier this month in Manta, Ecuador. The program finalized last Friday, January 20^th.

Four technicians of the US Office for Food and Drugs (FDA) trained and prepared 70 Ecuadorian companies. A group of 15 people visited four tuna processing factories located in Manta, with Eurofish, Seafman, Ideal and Conservas Isabel.
 

The Chilean technician, Mr. Sebastian Gutierrez, is in charge of the group that visited Conservas Isabel, as well as an expert in canned food with low acidity. The main purpose is to prepare the professionals to be able to apply the FDA regulations and norms on their products.

The representative of Fedexport in Manta, Ms. Monica Salgado, said that this program is very important to the country and has the participation of the Ecuadorian Institute of Fishery (INP) and the Public Health Ministry.

Before arriving to Ecuador, the group of technicians was in Colombia and Peru, and is traveling to Brazil and Costa Rica after the visit to Ecuador. They will visit several some South American countries to promote the need for canned food to comply with the FDA norms and regulations.

During the visits to the factories the technicians gave emphasis to the complete food processing chain.
 

The counselor for the FDA, Mr. Douglas Nelson, indicated the need for South American factories to work very consciously in order to avoid the risks of a possible microbiological contamination of the products. If the technical process fails, the whole chain has failed, therefore there is a risk of rejection for the products, said Mr. Nelson.

The participants were to present a report with the observations that they made at each factory. The idea is to enable them to recognize which actions the technician must adopt in each of the companies.