Aquaculture Food Safety Planned for Bangladesh

An Aquaculture Food Safety Centre is going to be set up in Bangladesh to provide training on good aquaculture practices, according to BDNews24.

The declaration came at a workshop yesterday (29 October) from Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation chairman, Syed Mahmudul Huq.

Mr Huq said: "Such an establishment would foster improved aquaculture in the country."

The Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation (BSFF), Joint Institute of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN), University of Maryland, USA, Katalyst, US AID supported PRICE project will sign an MoU in this regard soon, he added.

"The centre would be an affiliation of the Fisheries Product Business Promotion Council, an aquaculture entity under the Ministry of Commerce."

Good Aquaculture Practices apply a set of management approaches based on International Principles of Responsible Aquaculture in an effort to ensure food safety, environmental sustainability, labour standards and other issues of social acceptability. These principles are to be applied at all levels of the shrimp value chain.

The workshop on 'Environment and Good Aquaculture practices' was jointly organised by the government's Department of Fisheries, BSFFand Bangladesh Frozen Food and Exporters Association in collaboration with the US FDA and JIFSAN at the city's CIRDAP Auditorium.

Mashiur Rahman, adviser to the Prime Minister on economic affairs hailed the initiative, saying: "The government would cooperate on every possible avenue in this regard."

JIFSAN project officer, Christine L Hileman, pledged all-out supports to establish the facility.

US Food and Drugs Administration official, Brett Koonse, said that one in every five person depend on seafood as primary source of protein.

Touching on the challenges for the Bangladeshi seafood, he mentioned about the USFDA alerts for salmonella in shrimp, general seafood and other food products, reports BDNews24.