 The southeast is home to an array of people and cultures, and one thing that we have in common is our love of food, especially seafood. Whether it's consumed at a four-star restaurant or a backyard crawfish boil, the enjoyment is all the same. But seafood is highly perishable. Special care and knowledge are required to ensure safety and high quality. From production to the palate, the most important ingredient in seafood is quality. The main thing to look for in purchasing fresh seafood is number one, quality. If we were to use, start serving seafood that wasn't good and fresh and it just wasn't quite up to par, well, I really don't think we could survive very long, simply because number one, if you make someone sick, you could really have a good lawsuit against you. Number two, there's too much competition. I'm a quality control manager and I've also got a finger in production. But myself, I am a consumer and I'm not just an employee of a food processing plant. I've got a wife and two young kids and we are standard, ordinary, everyday consumers who go to the grocery store like everybody else and come home with a bag of grocery and we sit down and consume these items and we take it for granted that they were processed under good manufacturing practices and that they are safe for human consumption. One recommended method for establishing and maintaining safety and quality control of seafood products is called HACP, H-A-C-C-P or Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point. This program would explain HACP and illustrate some of the so-called critical control points in a typical seafood processing operation. A critical control point is the operation step at which a hazard might occur or be prevented. HACP is a new approach to the control of biological, chemical, physical and economic hazards in foods. Two important requirements of HACP are identifying critical control point and defining and incorporating preventive measures to control those critical control points. Although some aquaculture products require unique control points for production and processing, there are many common considerations. There are several factors that should be considered in both crawfish and cantfish production. In a HACP operation, each of these factors is analyzed for any potential hazard. Production analysis for both of these aquacultural species begins with site selection. The chosen site and adjacent property should be free of known contaminants. The same concerns apply to the water supply. Producers should review the water quality records of the site before starting a project and then continue to monitor the water source regularly. Be careful when using chemicals for weed and insect control. Following label instructions is crucial. Only properly trained and qualified individuals should use these chemicals. During crawfish harvesting, contamination by oil, gas or contaminated bilge must be avoided. Use the boat only for crawfish if possible and wash it thoroughly between uses. Harvest only healthy, live crawfish and discard bait and other debris. To avoid crushing the crawfish, don't overfill the sacks. Don't set them on end and don't stack them more than three high. Place the sacks on raised floors or pallets to prevent contamination from bilge water and keep the engine maintained to prevent leaks. Keep the crawfish moist and protect them from the sun and wind while harvesting to increase the survival rate. Extend the shelf life of crawfish during transportation by keeping them lightly iced in a refrigerated truck. Use the truck only for transporting crawfish and wash and sanitize it thoroughly between uses. Catfish should be treated only with approved drugs in the proper concentration and harvested only after the required waiting period. The trucks used for transporting catfish should be cleaned and sanitized before they're used and they should be filled with cool, clear water. The water should be well aerated before and during the loading and transportation of the catfish. In the processing of catfish and crawfish, as in production, each operation step is analyzed for possible hazards. Inside the plant, a hazard might be an unsanitary condition that will adversely affect the quality or safety of the final product. One excellent way to evaluate a processing plant's sanitary condition is to use the good manufacturing practices as outlined in Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulation, Section 110.3, as a guide. In a HESAP operation, processing steps or critical control points should be thoroughly evaluated for potential quality and safety problems. Where a potential problem is identified, you must establish procedures to prevent the problem from occurring. Establish a system for monitoring and maintaining records of the monitoring. For example, blanching crawfish for peeling under most circumstances is considered a critical control point. If crawfish are overcooked, there may be a problem in peeling that will reduce yields. Undercooked crawfish can also have textural problems that reduce their quality, or they may be a source of bacterial contamination from microorganisms that would have been killed in a proper blanch. To establish the correct cooking time for blanching crawfish, you should first conduct a test for enzyme activity. Proper blanching destroys both microorganisms and enzymes in crawfish. The enzymes are destroyed last. A simple gel test will determine the time needed to destroy them and still maintain satisfactory meat yield. Once you've established the proper time, monitor the blanching process to ensure consistency. In this case, both blanching time and water temperature must be measured. Electronic timing devices with temperature recorders work well. However, simple-to-use computer monitoring equipment provides an economical and reliable method for monitoring blanching times and temperatures. A similar approach should be taken for other processing steps in the facility. Not all will require monitoring. Coolers and freezers are an important point where temperatures should be monitored. Computers handle this job easily. The aquaculture processing industry depends on a large labor force. Hands, arms, clothing, and hair host numerous bacteria. So you should take special precautions to clean and sanitize workers who come in contact with the seafood product. Uniforms should be clean each morning and kept as clean as possible during the day. Fresh gloves, aprons, and other parts of the uniform should be put on throughout the day as needed. Help workers wash their hands thoroughly before reporting to work. After workers rinse, wash and scrub, and rinse their hands again, they need to dip or rinse their hands in a sanitizer solution. Employees should handle gloves and washable aprons in the same manner. Workers must repeat this procedure after they use the restroom and anytime during the day when they change work stations or return from a break. Do not allow workers to wear jewelry when working at a food processing plant for several reasons. Jewelry can easily get caught in machinery, endangering the employee. Also, jewelry cannot be properly sanitized, and a piece of it could fall off into the seafood product. For similar reasons, workers should put nothing in their pockets, including pens and pencils. Some firms have uniforms without pockets, or they sew them shut to prevent workers from using them. Sick workers should never handle seafood, and those who have cuts or sores on their hands or arms should cover them with a secure bandage and gloves. Give new employees a thorough orientation on the rules and requirements, and provide all employees with periodic training. The walls and floors inside the plant should be made of materials that are non-porous, non-absorbent, and easy to clean. The best materials to use for processing equipment and food contact surfaces are stainless steel or fiberglass. However, even stainless steel can be a trap for soil and bacteria if it has sloppy pitted welding seams. All equipment should be easy to clean and constructed in a way that allows easy access to all parts for proper sanitation. Place large equipment in the room so that an adult is able to walk completely around all sides, including the side facing the wall. Shield all motors from splashing water and use a drip pan to keep grease and oil away from the food. Keep equipment properly maintained and ask workers to report malfunctions immediately. Give special attention to the condition of conveyor belts. Mesh belts can easily trap debris if not properly washed, and vinyl belts can crack and pit. The entire plant, equipment, utensils, walls, and floors should be cleaned thoroughly before and after each production day, and whenever possible at break or downtime. Cleaning a food processing plant takes five steps, dry clean, pre-rinse, soap and scrub, rinse, and sanitize. Clean systematically from the start of the line to the end and from the highest point down. Dry clean first by removing as much of the solid debris as possible by sweeping, then pre-rinse with cool water to forcefully remove all visible soil. The washing stage requires a liquid or foam chemical detergent. Some cleansers require scrubbing and others work on their own. There are many cleaners and sanitizers available. It's important that you make the right choice if you're to clean and sanitize properly without damaging equipment or spending money on unnecessary chemicals. If you need advice, contact a reputable firm, your extension worker, or advising service. After you've cleaned the surfaces, rinse them extremely well to make sure all of the soil and cleanser have been removed. You can use warm water as long as it's not above 140 degrees Fahrenheit. High temperatures could cook food residues onto the equipment services, making them difficult to remove. Also, hot water can cause condensation on the ceiling that might later drop back on to the work area. Following the final rinse, use a chemical sanitizer on all of the equipment making sure to sanitize all food contact areas. Do not exceed the recommended concentration of sanitizing agent. Concentrations exceeding the recommended guidelines could corrode equipment or even create a health hazard. Finally, remove from the floors all of the standing water that accumulated during the washdown. It's a good idea to keep records of when you clean and sanitize. This should be a regular part of your master's sanitation plan. Your master's sanitation plan will describe in detail what to clean, when to clean, how to clean, what chemicals to use, how much to use, and who will perform each job. A verification program to ensure that each job is properly completed will provide consistency and control. Sanitation is important inside and outside the processing facility. Eliminate from the ground surrounding the plant all areas that attract rodents and pests. Keep trash cans clean and covered and cut back grass and weeds to prevent rodents from nesting nearby. Hollows and potholes and drives and grounds should be filled to prevent standing water after a rain or a plant washdown. The plant should be located out of a floodplain and the building should be maintained and kept in good repair. All entryways should be screened to prevent pests from entering. Keep air intakes clean of debris. They should face the side of the building that offers a clean air source away from exhaust fumes. Implementing and maintaining a food sanitation quality and safety program may seem overwhelming at first, but using a systematic approach can assure the producer or processor that all quality control measures have been taken. And in turn distributors, buyers, and consumers will have confidence in the safety and quality of the final product.