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FOOD SAFETY Fighting the ���COLD WAR��� ��� and sewerage BY DOROTHY-JEAN MCCOUBREY hile New Zealand is revelling in the hottest summer for 50 years I am ���ghting my own ���cold war��� here in Washington DC, USA. Since arriving in midDecember it has been a constant battle to keep warm due to fog, snow, sleet, ice, wind and rain. This past week the daily maximum temperature has never risen above zero degrees Celsius, usually hovering around minus nine degrees Celsius. So why am I here, instead of enjoying a Coromandel beach while eating shell���sh with glass of sauvignon blanc? The reason is that late last year the US Food and Drug Administration Of���ce of Seafood offered me a scholarship position with their Public Health Engineering Division so I could focus on some of the food safety issues affecting seafood consumers around the world. It seemed too good an opportunity to turn down: a chance to see how the mighty USA operates their domestic and imported food safety system. The FDA is the largest government food agency in the world, regulating 25 percent of all USA commerce, including food, medicine, and a diverse range of medical devices from tongue depressors to radiation systems. The ���rst project I have been tasked with is to help design better systems to protect the shell���sh beds from sewage contamination due to the resulting food safety problems. The USA has the world���s oldest, formal shell���sh quality assurance programmes, being born in the 1920s. At that time shell���sh markets were rapidly expanding due the arrival of the steam train which opened up the West. Suddenly the wealthy people of Chicago could dine on fresh oysters delivered from the east coast ��� but their valued custom diminished when typhoid outbreaks were caused by oysters. Such outbreaks were a direct result of poor sewage disposal near shell���sh beds on the eastern seaboard in the early 20th Century. The shell���sh industry asked for a programme to restore consumer con���dence and this was developed with the endorsement, support and scienti���c advice of the Government. The early shell���sh programme, in combination with political lobbyists who procured better community sanitation systems, was very effective in eliminating both typhoid, and cholera outbreaks. Today, transport moves a lot faster than a steam train: airlines can freight fresh seafood to most parts of the world within 24 hours. Suppliers are not just shipping west, but in every direction around the world and seafood is now one of the world���s most traded commodities. The aquaculture industry is booming and the top 10 suppliers of global product are now China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Norway, Egypt, Myanmar and Philippines. The USA alone imports over 84 percent of its seafood requirements and the average American now eats 7.2kgs of seafood each year. New Zealand too, now imports many seafood products from other countries. Although typhoid outbreaks are no longer associated with commercial shell���sh, other pathogens have jumped in to ���ll the ecological gap.Today, viral illness (norovirus and hepatitis) are the most prevalent pathogens linked to shell���sh and sadly New Zealand is not exempt. New Zealand has not historically worried much about W Ice on Lake Artemesia ��� a lake that I often walk around and very near the USFDA Head office LEFT: Ice skating in front of the Washington National Gallery of Art marine pollution because of our small population and lack of heavy industry. To have such pristine environment is globally unique, but we should not get complacent. Government and the shell���sh industry must take care to retain this status, especially in communities that do not have adequate sewage infrastructure. Today industry and public health specialists have a new set of challenges that must be managed in the 21st century. We must learn how to retain environments where seafood can be grown and harvested safely and to adjust the historical shell���sh safety programmes to deal with viral pathogens. We also need to ensure that all countries that supply the global food chain have access to the same information and the capacity to ensure that their products do not cause food safety problems. New Zealand has experienced food-borne illness caused by imported shell���sh, but we need to realise that the global food trade is here to stay. Therefore, New Zealand must keep abreast of the best way to deal with both imported and exported shell���sh food safety issues. I intend making the most of my time in the USA, taking up every professional and personal opportunity that comes my way. However, one year of ���ghting the ���cold winter��� war here is enough, I intend to be back at Coromandel next summer, hopefully with a new skill set to help the New Zealand aquaculture industry solve the 21st Century global food safety and environment problems. MARCH/APRIL 2013 ��� NZ AQUACULTURE ��� 11