Fish Canning Handbook

Les Bratt, Consultant in Food Technology, Worcester, UK

Canning continues to be an extremely important form of food preservation commercially, and canned fish represents a source of relatively inexpensive, nutritious and healthy food which is stable at ambient temperatures, has long shelf life and in consequence is eminently suitable for worldwide distribution. It is vitally important that all canning operations are undertaken in keeping with the rigorous application of good manufacturing practices if the food is to be safe at the point of consumption. This demands that all personnel involved in the management and operation of cannery operations have a competent understanding of the technologies involved, including the basic requirements for container integrity and safe heat sterilisation.
 

This book provides a source of up to date and detailed technical information for all those involved in the production of canned fish, from students thinking of entering the industry, to regulatory authorities with responsibility for official inspection, trading companies and retail organisations who purchase canned fish, as well as the manufacturers themselves. An exhaustive range of topics are covered in 15 chapters, including: the current global market; processing, packaging and storage operations; food safety and quality assurance; international legal requirements and laboratory analysis.

Canning continues to be an extremely important form of food preservation commercially, and canned fish represents a source of relatively inexpensive, nutritious and healthy food which is stable at ambient temperatures, has long shelf life and in consequence is eminently suitable for worldwide distribution.

List of contributors.
 
Preface: review of the market for, and sources of, canned fish.
 
1 Legal requirements for producers selling canned fish into Europe (John Hammond).
 
1.1 Introduction.
 
1.2 Imports into the EU.
 
1.3 General food law.
 
1.4 Product-specific controls.
 
1.5 Hygiene rules.
 
1.6 Fishery products from outside the EU.
 
1.7 Identification marking.
 
1.8 Microbiological criteria.
 
1.9 Labelling.
 
1.10 Lot marking.
 
1.11 Food contact materials.
 
1.12 Additives.
 
1.13 Flavourings.
 
1.14 Contaminants.
 
1.15 Pesticides.
 
1.16 Veterinary medicinal products.
 
1.17 Weights and measures.
 
1.18 Warning.
 
References.
 
2 Legal requirements for producers selling canned fish into North America (Kenneth Lum).
 
2.1 Introduction.
 
2.2 Canned fish description.
 
2.3 Why are regulations necessary?
 
2.4 Legal requirements and food safety.
 
2.5 Regulatory systems in Canada and the United States.
 
2.6 Canadian requirements.
 
2.7 United States requirements.
 
3 HACCP systems for ensuring the food safety of canned fish products (Alan Williams).
 
3.1 Introduction.
 
3.2 The HACCP Principles.
 
3.3 Prerequisite programmes.
 
3.4 How to set up and conduct an HACCP study for canned fish products.
 
3.5 Implementation.
 
3.6 ISO 22000.
 
3.7 Conclusions.
 
References.
 
Appendix 1: Useful websites (for HACCP Guidance and including generic HACCP plans in some cases).
 
Appendix 2: Modular HACCP approach for the canning of tuna products, showing typical activities within each module.
 
Appendix 3: Example of a tabular documentation format for prerequisite programmes.
 
Appendix 4: Extract from a non-tabular format HACCP plan approach for can seaming (CCP 2).
 
Appendix 5: Extract of a tabular HACCP Chart for CCP 3 sterilisation and CCP 4 in the generic fish canning flow diagram.
 
4 National and international food safety certification schemes (Harriet Simmons).
 
4.1 Introduction.
 
4.2 Food safety legislation.
 
4.3 Food safety management systems.
 
4.4 Certification: A brief overview.
 
4.5 Hazard analysis critical control points.
 
4.6 The Global Food Safety Initiative.
 
4.7 A comparison of major global certification programmes for food safety.
 
4.8 Summary of comparison of global certification programmes.
 
5 Fish quality (Tony Garthwaite)
 
5.1 Introduction.
 
5.2 Important fish species.
 
5.3 Pollution aspects.
 
5.4 Handling and transport.
 
5.5 Spoilage factors.
 
5.6 Reception and testing.
 
5.7 Storage.
 
5.8 Defrosting frozen fish.
 
5.9 Fish preparation.
 
5.10 Chemical indicators of quality.
 
References.
 
6 Design and operation of frozen cold stores (Stephen J. James and Christian James).
 
6.1 Introduction.
 
6.2 Factors affecting frozen storage life.
 
6.3 Cold store design.
 
6.4 Specification and optimisation of cold stores.
 
6.5 Thawing.
 
6.6 Conclusions.
 
References.
 
7 Packaging formats for heat-sterilised canned fish products (Bev Page).
 
7.1 Overview of the basic materials used for heat-sterilised fish packaging.
 
7.2 Metal cans for heat sterilised-fish products.
 
7.3 Plastic containers for heat-sterilised fish products.
 
7.4 Glass containers for heat-s