2014-09 - Sourcing fish for export from catcher boats and some unregistered establishments

​Date of notice: 9 October 2014
Date of effect:  1 October 2014

Purpose

The following information provides further guidance for registered establishments that prepare fish and fish products for export when sourcing from catcher boats and unregistered land based establishments.

This advice incorporates recent changes to The Export Control (Fish and Fish Products) Orders 2005 (the “Orders”) - refer to IANs 2014-06 and 2014-07

Key Advice

Registered establishments that prepare fish and fish products for export may source the following fish and fish products from catcher boats and unregistered establishments:

• Live fish
• Fish (other than shucked shellfish) that has been bled, gilled, headed, gutted, chilled, frozen, iced for transport, salted, sorted, graded or washed

Specific examples include:

• Whole and headless crustaceans (includes product described as ‘heads’ or ‘tails’),
• Gilled, gutted finfish (or any combination of these e.g. headed and gutted, gilled and gutted)
• Meat from abalone and trochus (i.e. molluscs but not bi-valves) with the gut removed
• Tubes and tentacles from cephalopods
• Frozen and/or salted gutted sea cucumbers including when boiled but not yet ready to eat
• Frozen trochus meat including when blanched but not yet ready to eat
• Frozen or chilled raw prawns

Any other fish or fish products must be sourced from registered establishments. This includes any products that:

• Have been preserved by drying or acidifying
• Are cooked to become ready to eat
• Are presented as fillets, cutlets etc (i.e. has undergone more than minimal processing)
• Are fins, livers or gut

Background

The Orders allow registered establishments to source fish for export from catcher boats and some land based establishments (i.e. aquaculture farms), neither of which need to be registered, provided the fish have only been subject to limited processing activity and are received direct from the source for further preparation at the registered establishment before export.

The above list is not exhaustive – if you are unsure if a fish product can be sourced for export from an unregistered establishment, further enquiries can be made by e-mailing Dairy Eggs and Fish or by contacting your local Department of Agriculture Food Safety Auditor.