Fransico
To be a Seafood Inspector I think, it not too important what your background
is. I don't think either a vet, a food technologist or a chemist has covered
every aspect of the EU food safety requirements in their studies. The
inspection work covers issues as food factory layout, fishing vessels,
residue sampling plans, laboratory management and different types of
aquaculture. There are however areas of expertise which each of these
disciplines can cover better with their different backgrounds. It would be
interesting to set up a dedicated university training programme(s) covering
all there areas for this specific field, as a course of a week in these
issues helps, but is in my opinion only a start. The field ofexpertisean
inspector of the Competent Authority has to cover is extremely large.
Inspectors need a lot of training in being an auditor. My experience in the
different countries I worked in exporting fish to the EU, is that Seafood
Inspectors often tell you what to do while BRS / IFS auditors generally ask
you why you do it? The difference here is the way the rules and standards
are being interpreted. The EU rules and regulations are not always clear and
interpreted differently around the world. I think it would be interesting to
organize an annual conference of "Third Countries" compentent authorties and
third country exporting industries to discuss and evaluate how the different
EU rules are being used in the differenct countries. One of the biggest
issues for Third Country Competent Aurthorities is being rather isolated
applying EU rules and regulations, which are only known to a few persons in
that country and doing it wrong can have huge consequences for the export
status of the country and the industry involved. This causes risk avoiding
behaviour on certain issues, which have been solved in other third counries
countries, whithout them knowing about it.
Regards
Evert Liewes
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