China's aquatic product processing technology urgently needs to keep pace with international standards
As early as 2002, the Ministry of Agriculture formulated the "National Plan for the Development of Major Agricultural Product Processing Industries," which made it clear that aquatic product production and processing should focus on the deep processing and comprehensive utilization of bulk products, low-value products and waste, and promote the establishment of processing industry systems for freshwater fish, shellfish, pelagic fish and algae. In addition, a number of dynamic leading aquatic product processing enterprises should be cultivated and guided, and by accelerating technological transformation, the development of products suited to market demand should be promoted, continuously increasing their share of domestic and international markets.
Today, as the process of global economic integration accelerates, international trade and cooperation become increasingly extensive, and technological innovation advances by the day, the ever-faster pace of work and life has placed higher demands on food production, and nutrition, health, convenience, deliciousness and freshness have become dietary trends. Under enormous market demand, China's food processing has developed rapidly, and its scale and technical level have gradually aligned with international standards. However, incommensurate with being the "world's largest aquaculture country," China's aquatic product processing is a relatively lagging segment in the field of food processing. What development bottlenecks has the aquatic product processing industry encountered? What measures should be taken to solve them? A series of questions has attracted the attention of the entire industry.
Challenges and opportunities coexist
"The overall development momentum of China's aquatic product processing industry is stable, but the current situation is not optimistic." At the National Freshwater Fisheries Development Seminar, Cui He, executive vice president and secretary-general of the Aquatic Products Circulation and Processing Association, pointed out: "At present, China's aquatic product processing industry has six major problems: first, enterprises are generally small in scale, with weak independent innovation capacity and weak core product competitiveness; second, industry self-discipline is not sound, and vicious competition within the industry still exists; third, the overall comprehensive utilization rate of raw materials is relatively low, and ecological and environmental awareness still needs to be improved; fourth, the dispersed household-style production method makes it difficult to guarantee product quality and the stability of processing raw materials, and the industry lacks staying power for development; fifth, a modern logistics system has not yet been established, and a nationwide consumer atmosphere for aquatic processed products has not yet taken shape; sixth, overall fiscal investment is relatively small, and in some places there is none at all."
In Cui He's view, among the above six problems, the issue of aquatic product quality has become a reason for developed countries to restrict imports of Chinese aquatic products, so that the comparative advantage of China's aquatic product exports is not obvious. In addition, developed countries have also set up technical barriers against Chinese aquatic products. Through analysis of each batch of "notified products," the main problems in the quality of Chinese aquatic products are veterinary drug residues and microbial contamination. The main reasons for these problems are that China's aquatic product quality supervision mechanism and testing level lag considerably behind international levels, while supervision is insufficient, quality testing institutions are few, and the technical level is low; moreover, some enterprises cannot strictly discipline themselves, resulting in some serious quality and safety incidents that have caused extremely bad effects on China's entire aquatic industry. Therefore, solving the quality problem of Chinese aquatic products at the source is extremely urgent.
"Admittedly, the aquatic product processing industry has many bottlenecks, but the huge returns obtained after breaking through these bottlenecks are also incalculable." Wei Chengyu, director of the R&D Department of Guangxi Haishitong Food Co., Ltd., put forward a different view. She analyzed: "The domestic consumer group and market demand are undergoing significant changes. As the younger generation becomes the main body of consumption, the traditional consumption model dominated by fresh and live products is shifting toward convenience, functionality and diversification of products. This change provides a large market and development opportunities for the aquatic product processing industry." Haishitong is mainly engaged in the production, processing and import-export trade of Pacific white shrimp and deep-sea golden pomfret. Precisely because the company's decision-makers remain optimistic about the industry's development prospects, they have spared no effort in investing in both software and hardware. Today, Haishitong has obtained the domestic "Hygiene Registration Certificate," the U.S. "AQSIQ HACCP Verification Certificate" and the "SGS Certificate" issued by BRC, and its products are sold to the United States, Sweden, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and other countries and regions.
"Ecological aquaculture" can ensure the quality and safety of aquatic products
The 1996 World Food Summit once emphasized "promoting the development of sustainable aquaculture that is closely integrated with rural, agricultural and coastal development and harmless to the environment," striving to strengthen the protection of the aquaculture environment and disease prevention and control while improving aquaculture technology, and strictly controlling the use of additives in feed and fishery drugs, thereby ensuring the quality and safety of aquatic products. This is the only path to achieving sustainable development of the aquaculture industry.
Tongwei Aquatic Food (Hainan) Company is an aquatic product processing enterprise mainly engaged in tilapia production and processing and export trade. Yi Ganghui, general manager of the company, told reporters about the current state of China's aquatic product processing: "For China's aquaculture industry to achieve real development, it is necessary to start from the aquaculture stage, and not pile up all problems at our end. From what I understand, promoting ecological aquaculture and establishing the concept of sustainable fisheries development is the best way to solve the aquatic product quality problem. This set of methods can fundamentally change the traditional development model that considers only pure fishery economic growth while ignoring the ecological environment, transforming from resource-based and extensive fisheries to technology-based and intensive fisheries, and comprehensively considering economic, ecological and environmental benefits."
"'Ecological aquaculture solves the aquatic product quality problem' is not merely a theory; cases can be found to support it." Yi Ganghui analyzed for reporters: "'Tongwei Fish' is a product that successfully practices ecological aquaculture. Tongwei Fish comes from ecologically farmed bases with healthy water bodies, uses carefully selected high-quality fry, and throughout the process uses feed scientifically formulated from agricultural by-products such as fishmeal, soybean meal, rapeseed meal and flour, without adding any hormones, antibiotics, prohibited drugs or drugs used for disease prevention and treatment under national standards. It is a healthy and safe fish with quality controllable throughout the entire process, from the water environment, fry and inputs to inspection, distribution and marketing. Since its launch in 2002, there has never been a single quality and safety problem, and it has been highly recognized by the market."
Processing technology needs to keep pace with international standards
⟦NL> When analyzing the technical methods of China's aquatic product processing, Zhou Deqing, deputy director of the National Aquatic Product Supervision and Inspection Center, said: "China's current aquatic product processing methods are still some distance behind those of developed countries, and we should closely follow international trends and learn from their advanced experience. From an exchange with the Norwegian Seafood Association, I learned that EU aquatic product processing has the following 5 advantages: first, convenience. Some aquatic products are first processed into fish paste, and then the fish paste is used to produce a variety of products for consumers to eat directly, which are both nutritious and shelf-stable, and convenient to carry; second, simulation. Fish paste can be made into simulated products similar in color, aroma, taste and shape to crab, shrimp, shellfish, shark fin, roe and so on; third, health enhancement. Using aquatic products as raw materials, according to a certain formula and combined with appropriate medicinal ingredients, various aquatic health foods are made, turning them into true 'medicinal meals'; fourth, beauty applications. The vast majority of fish roe is not only delicious and nutritious, but also an internationally popular beauty and health food, and the deep processing of fish roe has great potential; fifth, fresh live cutting. After scientific cutting and processing, aquatic products can maintain their original fresh taste and meet the consumption needs of different consumers."
Although it is now the closed fishing season in the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea, the processing workshop of Liaoning Dandong Taihong Food Co., Ltd. is still busy. Workers grade hard clams according to export standard specifications, remove dead clams and cracked clams, and then transport them to the roasting workshop for cleaning, disinfection and bagging. These aquatic products will be exported to countries such as Japan and South Korea.
Du Yuanchun is the chairman of Liaoning Dandong Taihong Food Co., Ltd. and has been engaged in the aquatic product processing and export business for many years. In recent years, as the number of domestic aquatic product processing and export enterprises has increased, Du Yuanchun has felt great pressure.
Du Yuanchun revealed to reporters: "In order to comply with the standards of importing countries, we have made major adjustments in the direction of aquatic product processing technology: in marine aquatic product processing, on the basis of increasing the development of traditional aquatic foods, we have extensively developed refined edible fresh fish paste, and then used fresh fish paste as a raw material to produce various convenience foods, improving the comprehensive utilization rate and added value of low-value products; in freshwater fish processing, following the principle of 'first freshness preservation, second live preservation, third processing,' sales should focus on live and fresh products, and under chilled and frozen conditions, we should do a good job in developing surimi, fish fillets and new salted-dried products, smoked products and seasoned products; in shellfish processing, the main focus is on keeping them alive, purification and disinfection, and diversified development, such as shellfish seasonings, dried products, smoked products and soft-packaged canned foods, as well as calcium source foods for humans and animals."