Food safety applications of aquaculture products companies in Izmir province

Nutrition is evidently an important issue. Nutrition and healthy life are the most essential human requirements. This is only possible through food safety. Together with the rise in world population, the ever-growing food requirement and many recent food borne diseases have manifested the importance of food safety. Food borne illnesses negatively affect the human health in both developing and developed countries. Such diseases pose a notable risk especially against elderly, children and pregnant. Food safety means ensuring that the cultivated products do not harm consumers and environment in biological, physical and chemical terms. Agricultural and livestock products are not sufficient for meeting food requirements. As a cheap and valuable source of protein, marine products are the only way to overcome the shortage. Since stocks of water products in seas suffered a fall, aquaculture became more common. Accordingly, food safety management systems for aquaculture are now an issue on the agenda. There are many food safety management systems such as HACCP, BRC, IFS, ISO 22000, and GLOBAL GAP. Izmir is the 2nd most productive province in Turkey when it comes to cultivation of saltwater fish. According to data from 2013-2014, there are 24 sea bream and temperate bass processing plants in Izmir, while 10 of them exclusively process breams and basses coming from aquaculture. According to the same data, Izmir comprises 61 fish farms that cage-cultivate for bream and bass. Scope of the present study included 10 water product processing plants, as well as 32 fish farms of cage culture in Izmir province. The study emphasized on HACCP system in fish processing plants, and on GLOBAL GAP certification system in fish cultivation. The objective of hereby study was a holistic analysis on food safety management systems applied in processing plants and cage culture of water products in Izmir province.