What are the food safety requirements for fish roe and caviar production?
Hi all
Could you please let me know what will be the roe processing requirements in our plant as we want to process roe in existing plant operation. All your valuable comments, suggestions and ref. would be greatly appreciated.Thanks.
Hi, I know virtually nothing about fish processing, but your query is a bit open-ended as we don't know anything about your plant, and it will therefore be difficult for other IFSQN members to know what "extra" would be needed to accommodate your new products.
Perhaps you could give a quick overview of what your existing equipment/capabilities are, and where you think the gaps are, and the posters here who know about fish-related things might then be able to give more useful feedback for you?
Thanks for the reply. Our existing operation include manual filleting line,where we fillet fish,weigh it and packed/stored and also forward to IQF section for further processing.
My concerns is can we do roe extraction and roe processing in same room? or Roe requirements require separate room? Regulatory requirements for ROE processing is not clear.
Thank you
Thanks for the reply. Our existing operation include manual filleting line,where we fillet fish,weigh it and packed/stored and also forward to IQF section for further processing.
My concerns is can we do roe extraction and roe processing in same room? or Roe requirements require separate room? Regulatory requirements for ROE processing is not clear.
Thank you
Hi FtN,
Frozen fish fillets ?
I have experience in basic fish processing but not regarding roe aspects. Separation usually comes down to a question of (controllable) hygiene.
I'm rather surprised you can do all the steps already mentioned in one room but it depends on the details, eg volumes, candling etc.
In my long-term memory, caviar is a considerably specialised operation.
If you are strictly packing frozen green roe for further processing, then you can pack it in the same room. If you are curing the roe (caviar), then your final product is considered raw, ready-to-eat, so it will require a high degree of sanitation and a thorough environmental monitoring program. If you are BRC certified, this would be in the “high care” category (or high-risk if you are SQF). If your final product is refrigerated, you will also need to control the water phase salt content (off the top of my head, I believe it is minimum 3.5%) to prevent formation of botulism. Roe grading is also a highly specialized skill, particularly if you are targeting the Japanese market, so I would suggest getting input from your customers and lots of employee training.
Thank you for your valuable comments. Appreciated.