Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Commerce & Industry

12-December-2011 16:29 IST

The USFDA team officials visited India during 26th April 2010 to 07th May 2010 to evaluate the measures adopted by the Government and seafood processors and aquaculture producers to control the chemotherapeutic residues in aqua cultured products.

The Mission had sent their final report on 28th February 2011 and the major finding in the report is that India’s control of chemotherapeutic residues is focused on laboratory testing and there is no dedicated foods safety training and inspection programme or scheme for aquaculture hatcheries, feed and farms. The USFDA suggested the following: -

o Training government, industry, and other on Good Aquaculture Practice (GAqP) or Best Management Practice (BMP) preventive measures for food safety,

o Training hatcheries, nurseries, and growout pond farmers and technicians on these preventive measures,

o Requiring records of all probiotics, chemicals and antibiotics used,

o Monitoring or conducting inspections at hatcheries, nurseries, and growout ponds,

o Registering and inspecting feed manufacturers that includes a verification testing programme for both domestically produced and imported feed

. As per the USFDA suggestion, MPEDA implemented/organised four training programmes for the trainers viz. officers of MPEDA, State Fisheries Department, leading hatchery operators and farmers, representatives of fisheries colleges of different regions, on Good Aquaculture Practices at four centres viz. Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa during April, 2011for the benefit of aquaculture farmers and other stake-holders.

This information was given by Shri Jyotiradiya M. Scindia, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

DS/GK

Control of chemotherapeutic residues in aquaculture urged preventive GAqP training, recordkeeping, inspections and feed verification. USFDA found India's chemotherapeutic residue control focused on laboratory testing without a dedicated safety training and inspection programme for hatcheries, feed and farms, and recommended training on Good Aquaculture Practices, recordkeeping for inputs, inspections and monitoring of hatcheries and farms, and registration and verification testing of feed manufacturers. MPEDA implemented regional training-of-trainers programmes to promote adoption of these preventive measures and improve oversight.