How Aquatic Products Get Their Own ID Cards

In 2014, among the ten most closely watched focal issues in society, food safety still ranked first. This is already the third consecutive year that food safety has topped the "ten most closely watched focal issues." In recent years, the state, local governments and relevant regulatory authorities have attached great importance to food safety work, successively issuing a series of policies and regulations to standardize the food market, and in particular have strengthened supervision over the food circulation links, achieving certain results. Of course, to improve food safety, supervision only in the food circulation links is not enough. Following the food circulation process "from source to table," how to strengthen food traceability supervision is also a key task in ensuring food safety.

Food traceability is equivalent to putting an "ID card" on food, and this requires establishing a traceability system with complete information. The system must have the ability to identify products, record the real-time conditions of each circulation link of the product from source to table, record product attributes and processing characteristics when necessary, and organize and analyze the entered information. Developed countries abroad have long had clear requirements for food traceability. For example, in Europe, the food code stipulates that a two-way forward and reverse traceability management model is the minimum requirement for a traceability system; the United States also has clear requirements for food traceability, requiring that information such as the initial production labels of food during pretreatment, production and storage be registered as a basic measure in the traceability system.

Aquatic products are one of the food categories with the largest consumption by ordinary people, and Fujian Province, as a major province for the import, export and consumption of aquatic products, means that enterprises and ordinary consumers naturally pay special attention to the safety of aquatic products. How can "ID cards" be better attached to aquatic products? For this reason, as a professional third-party food safety testing institution and a technology-based enterprise in Fujian Province, Fujian CCIC Huari Food Safety Testing Co., Ltd., under CCIC Group Fujian Company, has for many years been based on research into aquatic product identity traceability systems and has participated in the development and promotion of the "aquatic product identity traceability system." In January 2015, this project won the third prize of the Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award issued by the Fujian Provincial Government. This project can connect all links of aquatic enterprise production, inspection, supervision and consumption. By extracting the safety traceability elements of concern to consumers from supply chain links such as aquatic product production, processing, circulation and consumption, it establishes a food safety information database, safeguards consumers' lawful rights and interests from the source, and also improves enterprises' level of aquatic safety control while enhancing the government's regulatory capacity.

"Safety on the tip of the tongue" needs to be fundamentally addressed through institutions and even more needs strong scientific and technological support. Strengthening full-process supervision of food from source to table can not only reduce infections caused by foodborne diseases, but also, when a food quality and safety crisis breaks out, allow manufacturers and the government to quickly identify risks and reduce harm to public health.