Hi Francisco Blaha:
When you place a recent conference to the fishery industry related to the U.E.
audits in my country, Uruguay, I was traveling outside the City; nevertheless I
have obtained your paper entitled "Exporting Seafood to UE", edited by
ITC/Unctad/WTO on April 2008 and surely you are on the way.
You are right when you said that the CAs human resources come from various
backgrounds, but this is certainty in Latin America, where different
disciplines are given to the people who wants an auditor job in the fishery
industry or wants a professional degree related to fishery industry "safety
side".
Luckily, Latin America has many Research Centers and Universities giving
curricula on seafood safety and your own Organization (FAO) gave a wide
opportunities to Latin America people bringing dozens of postgraduate courses
through the FAO-DANIDA Project, PNUD Project, FIIU Regular Program and others
jointly with WHO or INPAZZ (LA), for more than 18 years!
I agree with you about that the sum of knowledge is the best to understand the
safety, technological and marketing sides of the fishery industry in developing
countries and the same occurs in developed countries.
Perhaps you should take a look in the most important Latin America Universities´
Curriculums which cover seafood microbiology and biochemistry, on board handling
and transport, post harvest best practices, seafood processing, fish technology
and quality assurance. Surely you will be surprised!
Concerning your specific questions, my comments are:
* In some Latin America Universities, undergraduate students have a minimal
standard of study to obtain a "seafood inspection" status when they arrive to
the Veterinarian Degree ("Foods" scholarship); it means that these Veterinary
Faculties have that
kind of curricula you are talking about; if the people became "official
inspectors"
depends on job's opportunities. Some of them work in the private sector as
"quality
assurance" professionals. These curriculums are available in Internet.
* Other Universities professional degrees are more "technological" than "safety
oriented",
and other are more "biological" than "safety oriented" (E.g. Engineers or
Biologists) and they work in the Labs or in the private industry, as wells as in
the CAs.
* Some CAs in Latin America require as a prerequisite University's Veterinarian
Degree to be a "professional seafood inspector".
* Most of the CAs with University's help or International Bodies support (FAO,
OMS, PNUD) or professional associations agreements, had or have postgraduate
training programs on seafood audits, up
dating the local capacity building time to time. Some Training programs are
available in the
published FAO Fisheries Reports.
Regards,
EB.-
Mensaje citado por Francisco Blaha <francisco@ihug.co.nz>:
> Hi Everyone
>
> Coming from industry, I'm convinced that is my job to know the regulatory
> and market access requirements of the countries I'm aiming to export better
> than the inspectors, just because if something goes wrong, is my money on
> the line and not the salary of someone in the regulatory agency.
>
> But now, being on the capacity building side with many Competent Authorities
> (CAs) and Industry organisations, I have seen that the people in charge of
> regulatory compliance issues in regards seafood safety and market access
> come from various backgrounds.
>
> I have worked with veterinarians, microbiologists, chemists, fisheries
> people and some food scientists, and while knowledge of each is important,
> the sum is what make sense.
>
> Many training initiatives (particularly in developing countries) focus on a
> week of HACCP, or Risk Management or specific country requirements (such as
> the EU), not many (if any) cover all other aspects that are important
> (seafood Microbiology and biochemistry, on board handling, post harvest best
> practices, seafood processing, fisheries technology, general records and
> data management, and so on)
>
> I had the chance to talk this issue informally with colleagues over the
> years, but never confronted it "formally"
>
> Hence, I wanted to post the following questions:
>
> Is it worth to discuss it, or is just too wide, complicated and with to many
> variables to be useful?
>
> Has any CA set a minimal standard syllabus or training that potential
> seafood inspectors need to comply before starting the field work?
>
> Is there some educational institution that provides specific training to be
> a "seafood inspector"?
>
> I will be happy to hear comments
>
> Francisco Blaha
> (now at FAO in Rome)
>
> --
> Francisco Blaha
> www.franciscoblaha.com
>
>
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