FAO.org

Key skills and knowledge required by those managing and working in a cannery to prevent and reduce food loss and waste (FLW) include:

• principles of canning
• packaging materials for canned fishery products
• unit operations
• fish spoilage and raw material handling
• pre-treatment
• pre-cooking
• filling
• sealing
• retorting
• post-process handling
• final operations
• canning processes
• equipment for fish canning
• process control in fish canning operations
• GMP prerequisites
• hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP)

Canning operations involve the sourcing, handling, cold storage and processing of large volumes of fish. Hence an understanding of logistics is important.

Canning is highly automated involving specialized machinery. Engineering skills and knowledge will be required in order to maintain operations and avoid unnecessary problems during processing which could lead to FLW.