SECUREFISH
Food security is a major concern for all countries in the face of population increase and diminishing energy and water supplies. Over one billion people in low and middle income countries suffer from malnutrition. To meet the UN Millennium Development Goals to eradicate hunger and poverty, it is essential to reduce post harvest losses, including in the fisheries sector.
The overall objectives of SECUREFISH are to:
- strengthen capacity in low cost technology;
- improve the preservation of existing fish supplies;
- utilise waste and by-catch to produce value-added products;
- develop an integrated quality management tool; and finally to
- test the developed technology and quality management tools in different real third country conditions.
There are six work packages (WPs), described below.
Work Package 1
WP1 will ensure the efficient management of the project.
Work Package 2
WP2 will develop low cost innovative processing tools based on traditional technology for preserving fish including a solar tunnel drier, a modified solar assisted extruder and fast freezing/ continuous atmosphere freeze-drier (CAFD).
Work Package 3
In WP3, underutilised by-catch and waste by-products of fish filleting will be recovered and converted to high value products.
Work Package 4
WP4 will develop an effective total quality management tool (safety and risk assessment, HACCP quality costs and traceability, nutritional quality and carbon footprint) of three fish product chains (solar dried, extruded and frozen/CAFD) which can be tailored to suit local needs.
Work Package 5
The technological advances (WP2) and quality management tool (WP4) will be implemented in WP5 and evaluated in the three selected fish product chain case studies in Africa (Kenya, Namibia, Ghana), Asia (India and Malaysia) and Latin America (Argentina) to include different economic, cultural and social conditions. These case studies involve all stakeholders including SMEs to ensure sustained implementation of project results.
Work Package 6
WP6 details a strategy for education, training and the dissemination of results, guidelines and publications to widely promote safe and quality fish products.
To find out more about the SECUREFISH project, please look at our introductory presentation and our "highlights" page.