Recipient Organization
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
ITHACA,NY 14853
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
A major hurdle to the development and growth of a domestic seaweed industry is the lack of guidance on potential hazards associated with seaweeds and seaweed products and how they can be controlled. The development of a new hazards and controls guide that focuses on all relevant process, sanitation, supply chain, and radiological controls is a crucial next step in creating an effective training that results in the development and implementation of effective food safety programs to bring value-added seaweed products to market as food. This Collaborative, Education, and Training project seeks to address all three of the program's strategic goals by creating opportunities and clarity around safely bringing seaweed to market. This can increase resilience among existing producers through diversification of production and provide new opportunities for economically disadvantaged communities.Goals and supporting objectives 1. Create guidance on potential food safety hazards related to seaweed products and controls to ensure safety. • Compile existing seaweed food safety information into a guide that will outline known potential hazards and control measures. 2. Create educational opportunities for industry, agencies, and the public. • Coordinate webinars and/or conference sessions on different seaweed food safety topics.A literature and resource review will be conducted to identify the known potential seaweed related food safety hazards. Each hazard will be described and potential controls for preventing them outlined in the guide. Throughout the award period the project team will host public webinars to present and share the findings and showcase the newly developed resource.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
0%
Applied
100%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
Create guidance for the growing seaweed industry on potential food safety hazards related to seaweed products and potential controls to ensure safety.Expand on guidance developed by CT Sea Grant and New York Sea Grant.Provide current industry and regulatory agencies (i.e. CT DABA, NY AGM) opportunities to review and amend.Create educational opportunities for industry, agency, and public to learn more about seaweed food safety.Educational webinars to inform agencies, academics, industry, and any others with interest on findings.Facilitate talks and/or sessions at national conferences to engage others on the efforts and solicit feedback from industry, agency, and other experts as relevant.
Project Methods
The project team will work in groups to break down the main food safety hazards associated with foods (biological, chemical, and physical) to compile existing resources and conduct a literature review to identify the potential seaweed related food safety hazards that are known. While there is a core team leading this effort, each of the PI's will be responsible for coordinating a group of professionals in the field to assist with literature review and drafting of the guidance document. Funds will be budgeted to compensate additional authors and technical reviewers to ensure chapters are accurate and complete. The literature review will build off the previous review conducted as part of the National Sea Grant Law Center's Building Consensus on Seaweed Food Safety Project (see Summary of Previous Work below). As part of its project, the Law Center worked with researchers at the University of Massachusetts - Boston on a food safety focused literature review, which will be posted on the Seaweed Hub's website.The development of this guide will follow existing guide templates such as the FDA's Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guide and Connecticut Sea Grants existing Seaweed Hazards guide. While these two resources focus heavily on HACCP and the process controls relevant to the development of HACCP plans, the proposed guide will be more robust and focus on general controls that would be relevant to ensuring food safety allowing for effective use of the guide regardless of which food safety regulation is being used. Currently, seaweed is categorized as a Raw Agricultural Commodity (RAC) on the federal level but states with seaweed production pre-dating this federal designation already have established food safety requirements for seaweeds, most of which are focused on the seafood HACCP regulation.Each hazard will be described and potential controls for preventing each outlined in the guide. The species covered will depend on literature findings, but the focus will be on the most commercially viable and important species in the U.S. To the extent possible the project team will consider differences between species and cultivation methods based on available research. Initial review of existing resources suggests the following sections would be most relevant and the focus on in this guide. As qualified facilities, they can continue to legally operate under these existing state systems.