Trading into the Future

March 1-4, 2020 Clare Winkel attended and was a guest speaker at the 71^st Pacific Fisheries Technologists Conference - ‘Trading into the Future,’ hosted on the Queen Mary Ship in Long Beach, California, USA.

In this blog Clare will provide a synopsis of the conference and trending seafood topics, share the impacts of COVID-19 and how it affected the training she delivered to one of the biggest International Seafood Companies.

Firstly, as you can see from the image above the entire conference was held on the original Queen Mary Ship - https://www.queenmary.com/hotel/ 
The location was almost as exciting as the conference! The Ship began construction in 1930 in Scotland and was named after the King’s wife (Queen Mary).  Six years later, on May 27, 1936 the Queen Mary finally departed from England in the first voyage.  In the original Art Deco décor the ship boasts 5 dining areas and lounges, 2 cocktail bars and swimming pools, a grand ballroom, a squash court and even a small hospital.  The rich, finest authentic polished wood internal construction and original artwork takes guests back to the  1930’s. The ship carried some 2.2 million passengers in peacetime and 810,000 military personnel in the Second World War.  Since her retirement from the sea as an active liner in 1967, the ship has been an iconic Southern California attraction, hotel, and venue for special events – hence the location of the conference.   

But most importantly the annual conference is an opportunity to extend professional networks and build collaborative relationships with like-minded people who are passionate about everything fish and seafood.  

Conference Synopsis

Keynote speakers stimulated new thinking across technical, scientific, and ecological topics of importance to the seafood and aquaculture industries worldwide. 

Fun facts: Did you know kombucha can be made with seaweed? And that some naturally occurring compounds from shrimp/prawns can inhibit the growth of cancer cells in three different ways.

Challenges of Large Ports: The twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach move 38% of all container cargo into the USA, with a value of USD$312 Billion dollars!!!!.  These twin ports are no 9 in the world for volume moved, with only ports in China & SE Asia moving more. But I only counted 3 ships emptied/refilled & moving out of the port in the 4 days she was there (Corona Virus).

Leveraging molecular genetics tools to modernize seafood traceability at multiple levels of the global supply chain: More sample surveys of seafood purchased at retail & food service outlets & this time 47% failed the DNA vs Label test.  But after the team had undertaken the same trials from 2012 to 2018 the failure rate was down to 28%. But a second project was of great interest to Clare. The team collected fishing boat “hold” water & tested it for fish DNA, then matched against the fish species reported as caught by the crew and then matched to the catch locations on the boat's satellite  navigation system. This was undertaken in 3 countries. Turns out the hold water has viable fish DNA for up to 72hrs post catch. And no the crew did not report all fish species caught.

Global Seafood Trading – An Australian Perspective: Threats to the global trade of seafood were discussed along with the effects. Threats included: trade disputes (that lead to tariff changes that lead to volatile prices & changes in products in certain markets & fishers then stopping catching that species), demand changes for different species, Modern Slavery acts becoming legislation in many parts of the world (that requires far more open traceability within the supply chain & much more paper work), failure of the processing sector to utilize all parts of the caught seafood (lots of waste within different parts of the supply chain ie 40% of seafood caught in the USA is wasted along the supply chain), ports as a choke points within the supply chain, rampant food fraud within the industry (leading to a failure in consumer trust & lower consumption), biosecurity issues in various countries (key issue in Aust leading to the complete closure of industry sectors) & climate change (leading to a change in sea water temperatures, then to species distribution & catch locations so geographical based food safety hazards like ciguatera, can change).  

Health Benefits of Surimi Seafood: Hands up who knew that the Japanese have been making Surimi for 900 years ? Surimi is the production of formed products from fish protein i.e. crab sticks. But turns out that the consumption of surimi products can lower your blood pressure, improve your memory and diabetes status along with suppress the growth of cancer cells. Fried surimi contains less than 3% fat because the gelling behaviour blocks the oil migration. 

Chemical Contaminant Screening to Ensure the Safety of Seafood Products: This was about how much antibiotics & industrial chemicals can be found in farmed seafood. China produces 70% of farmed seafood entering the USA. 95% of shrimp (prawns) consumed in the USA is imported. 80% of salmon eaten in the USA is farmed, mostly from Norway. Think I will stick to paying a bit more for my wild caught Australian prawns. 

Seafood Fraud and Mislabelling: One of my all time favourite topics. Through presentation of case studies, prosecutions & another DNA sample trial in Los Angeles. This trial purchased the samples at retail outlets, not food service, then tested the DNA against the labelled species & against the US Federal labelling laws & the Californian labelling laws.  23% failed against the country of origin labelling & 13% had species substitution but there was clear conflict between the Californian & Federal labelling requirements.  I learnt that catfish are not kosher. 

What is Sustainable Seafood? – Exploring Certification and Beyond: Update on the current status of the Alaskan Responsible Fishing certification scheme.  Even with all of the available Eco labels & certification systems the consumer still has no idea what the words “sustainability” means.

21^st Century Tuna Processing: Brilliant summary of Tuna Processing through the ages & the US & international regulations along the way. Then the really useful bit, was the summary table of all potential control points monitoring limits, CCP & critical limits monitoring & the corresponding verification activities required. Also, discussions on some case studies of spectacular processing failures & how they occurred. Yep you really need to keep the monitoring equipment calibrated & read the detail on the monitoring forms when your job is to sign off as the verifier.

My presentation on “Salmonella in Raw Fish Fillets – Why Do We Not consider it a Food Safety Hazard?” This was a review of salmonella outbreaks caused by the consumption of fish, almost always as a raw dish such as poke, sushi, sashimi & cerviche. Then recall notices & import rejection notices were reviewed. Yep it’s happening all over the world across many species & countries. An Australian case study was reviewed where 3 species of salmonella was identified on raw fish fillets in a processing plant that was traced back to an Australian farm. Additional evidence seems to show that all species came from the native wildlife & possibly the soil.  After the presentation it was confirmed by many discussions that no one is considering this hazard at the processing sector (cross contamination) or even in the food service sector serving raw fish products.

Please contact me directly [email protected] if you would like a copy of my presentation, more information on any of the topics or require training or consulting in your food manufacturing facility.

Impacts of COVID-19

Since the Conference was timed rather perfectly with the global emergence of the Corona Virus, there were strict guidelines and restricted movements of delegates, frequent hand sanitizing and social distancing was strongly encouraged.  Some people couldn't attend as they were unwell and had a cold or their company had stopped all travel.  Some presentations were delivered virtually and that worked well.

This also impacted on the TACCP/ VACCP workshop I had scheduled with one of the world’s largest Seafood Companies after the conference. Due to travel bans & other corporate requirements the training was delivered virtually from my hotel room to staff based at their homes in USA, Thailand & in the Los Angeles office. 

Training in today’s environment 

In response to the uncertainty & rapid changes due to the COVID-19 outbreak, consider shifting your training to virtual delivery. Do your bit and slow down the spread of Corona Virus with ICS virtual and online training