DRAFT, NOV 11, 1996

To: Selected Seafood Research Funding Agencies

From: Kenneth S. Hilderbrand Jr., Chairman, SHASC Research Needs Committee

Subject: Priority Research Needs

Attached is a consolidated summary of research needs identified by the Research Needs subcommittee of the Seafood HACCP Alliance for Education and Training Steering Committee (SHASC). This information is being provided to you in hopes it will help you determine priorities in your research funding programs. Also attached to this memorandum is background information on the SHASC and a listing of specific research areas the "needs committee identified and the SHASC prioritized. The research areas identified were those which the committee felt could produce information useful for industry which must develop HACCP plans prior to December 17th 1997, as mandated by the Food and Drug Administration "HACCP regulations".

Producing a list of priority research needs was identified by the SHASC as one of eight objectives (SO-8) which comprise a Sea Grant funded cooperative effort by regulatory agencies, academia, and industry. A description of that project is included for your information.

The research needs committee was comprised of the entire SHASC membership with assistance of George Hoskins (FDA's Office of Seafood) and Mel Eklund and Spencer Garrett (National Marine Fisheries Service). We first collected all known reports and internal agency documents which identified seafood research needs (see attached list). We did this in part soliciting information on the SeafoodNic network which has over 400 seafood professionals subscribing over the internet, by direct mail solicitation to all Sea Grant College Directors and Seafood Specialists, and by announcements at various seafood conferences and meetings.

We then reviewed the literature, pulled out all references to needs relevant to HACCP implementation, and asked the entire SHASC to rank them as High or Low priority according to their understanding of the needs in their regions or areas or responsibility. Those rankings are included in the attached summary dated October 8, 1996.

In brief, the rankings show that the SHASC members felt that developing rapid detection methods for some well known natural and microbiological safety hazards were top priority. Included in the highest rankings where rapid tests for histamine, ciguatoxin, and Listeria monocytogenes. Developing a better understanding of the public health significance Listeria was also at the top of the rankings; perhaps even leading to developing tolerance levels for that microorganism in cooked ready to eat seafood.

If I can provide you additional information or explanation of our listing of research priorities I would be happy to do so. This list of priorities is the result of the combined thinking of many of the top seafood professionals in the nation over a 2 year period.

cc: Seafood HACCP Alliance Steering Committee

encl: 

# Summary, Research Needs - SO8 Priorities, October 8, 1996
# References, Seafood HACCP Research Needs, Specific Objective 8
# Fact Sheet, Seafood HACCP Alliance for Education and Training, Nov.1994
# Steering Committee for Seafood HACCP Alliance for Education and Training, Nov. 1994  

1. Develop better processing technologies and HACCP process critical limits such as:
• Detection and removal of parasites in fish
• Process procedures for retortable pouches
• Procedures for safe use of controlled and modified atmosphere packaging
• cooked ready to eat products
• raw fish
• Mollusk processing
• Detoxification of edible mollusks
• effects of temperature abuse
• rapid chilling of oysters
• shucking steps to reduce pathogenic organisms
• Pasteurization of
• shucked oysters
• crab
• cooked ready to eat products in general
• Detecting temperature abuse in transport
• evaluate tattle-tale indicators
• determine methods for calibration of temperature monitors
• Efficacy of microwave cooking
• Salt substitutes in smoked fish
• Effective methods of washing fish to reduce microbial levels
2. Develop improved detection and quantitative tests for seafood safety such as:
• Microbiological hazards
• pathogenic viruses in mollusks
• Listeria monocytogenes
• Vibrio vulnificus
• Biotoxins in fisheries products
• ciguatoxin
• paralytic, amnesic, neurotoxic and diarrheal shellfish poisoning
• toxins of seaweeds
• tetrodotoxin
• histamine, cadaverine, putrescine
• Chemical hazards
• sulphite in shrimp
• residues in aquaculture
3. Determine public health relevance of pathogenic microbiological organisms including:
• Tolerance levels for parasites in fish
• Tolerance levels for Listeria monocytogenes

1. Proceedings of the Aquaculture Products Safety Forum, Alabama Cooperative Extension Service, Auburn University, February 2-4, 1993. 157 pages.
2. Proceedings of the Seafood Science and Technology Workshop, A Selection of Unsolved Problems, Washington D.C., May 24-26, 1982.
3. FDA research needs statement dated June 28, 1994, highlighting HACCP.
4. "RESEARCH RECOMMENDATIONS FROM HACCP WORKSHOPS" (revised 9/29/88).
5. 1st Complete Draft, FDA Seafood Research Needs, FY 93-97, dated June 2?, 1993.
6. "THE REPORT OF THE MODEL SEAFOOD SURVEILLANCE PROJECT - A Report to Congress", pages 145 to 149.
7. National Marine Fisheries Service, "PRODUCT QUALITY AND SAFETY PROGRAM NEEDS - TIGER TEAM MEETING REPORT - EXCERPTS", draft, November 2-4, 1993.
8. America's Food Research Needs: into the 21st Century. Food Technology Vol. 47, No.3, March 1993.
9. "RESEARCH AND DATA NEEDS 1994-1996". Pacific Fishery Management Council, Portland, OR, August 22, 1994.
10. "HOW TO IMPROVE MICROBIAL QUALITY OF ALASKAN SEAFOOD - Development of Plant Specific data in Support of Model Seafood Surveillance Program", Jong S. Lee, Un of Alaska, November 10, 1992.
11. U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service "FOOD SAFETY RESEARCH: CURRENT ACTIVITIES AND FUTURE NEEDS", March 31, 1995.