48. The experts remarked that traceability is a relatively new concept, introduced in fisheries to assist in improving food safety. The implementation of new regulations within the EU now requires that all food products be traceable back to their source, so that if a food recall were required, all food products emanating from a particular source or through a particular process could be identified and recalled.
49. The advances made by the EC-funded TRACEFISH[7] project were noted. The project developed specifications for information to be generated and held by the food businesses involved in captured fish distribution chains and a technical specification for the electronic encoding of the data involved. The specifications include vessel units, trade units (e.g. individual fish, fish box, fish hold, batch, etc.), and logistic units with respect to the different actors in the production and distribution chain (e.g. vessel operators, fish auctions, transporters and processors).
50. Ecolabelling in fisheries differs from traceability in that it is designed to ensure that fish for food had been caught in a sustainable or responsible manner. For example, several non-governmental entities are advocates of this process and have certified certain fisheries as being the conducted in a sustainable manner, enabling the products to be labelled accordingly, with the intended goal that such products be preferred by consumers.
51. Ecolabelling and traceability address similar issues and problems and could use similar codes and data formats as in VMS and MCS. The labels or documentation, however, must accompany the products, which is a different concept from VMS and MCS where the objective of the communication is to determine activity remotely. The Consultation, therefore, felt it could not make any recommendations in this regard other than that noting that the promoters of such schemes should also use CWP codes.
52. The experts noted that the market, i.e. consumers, were playing an increasingly large part in demanding increased information about their food products and labelling of fisheries products and, thus, influencing the content and format of information related to these activities.
| [7] www.tracefish.org |
