TRACEABILITY OF SEAFOOD

According to www.seafish.org, “seafood traceability and labelling regulations ensure that seafood can be tracked through the supply chain and is described accurately to consumers”. Furthermore, it also says that “seafood traceability is the ability to fully trace a product from the point of sale back to its point of origin. This is required to follow general food law, fisheries control and fish marketing”. What are the seafood traceability and labelling regulations in the Philippines? Are these being enforced strictly? Are the violators being reported? If yes, where can we access the information? And who is doing it? Presumably it is either the DA in general, or BFAR in particular. But what about the imported fish products? Who is monitoring those? It seems that the jury is still out when it comes to whether or not cream dory or pangasius is safe to eat or not. Some say it is, but some say it is not. Some say that the imported fish from Vietnam is not safe because it is grown in the Mekong Delta where the river is dirty and toxic. In fairness, there are already local farms here that are producing clean fish. But how do we know which is which? The answer to that question may not yet be clear, but what is clear to me is that a database is needed, a with a system that will use bar codes and or QR codes. These technologies are now common nowadays, but if anyone still needs help in setting up these systems, just let me know. IKE SENERES/01-04-2024