Seafish, the authority on seafood, has announced that the shellfish sector will benefit from the current review of the Animal By-Products (ABP) Regulation now that pressure from industry, facilitated by Seafish, has ensured the removal of clean shell from its scope.
The European Animal By-Products Regulation 1774/2002/EC, introduced in 2002, controls the handling, use and disposal of all products of animal origin not intended for human consumption. Following a review in 2004 the Regulation has been undergoing a redraft to make it more flexible, as well as clarify its scope and improve some of the definitions. Ultimately this is intended to reduce some of the burden on lower risk activities, and focus control on the higher risk activities.
“Clean shell was classified as an animal by-product for the first time under the ABP Regulation, when the Regulation was introduced in 2002. This did not reflect the negligible risk of shellfish shell as an inert material. It has also created an extra burden on the shellfish sector. As a consequence of the Regulation the number of permitted uses for shell has reduced, and the cost of its disposal increased,” said Fiona Wright, Seafish Legislation Department.
“We have been fully aware of this extra burden on the shellfish sector and since 2002, when the ABP regulation was first proposed, Seafish has been working to have clean shell excluded from the scope of the Regulation. Now we have been successful. It is not always possible to remove all of the flesh from the shell, but now even where there is some flesh remaining a Member State can approve uses of this material outside of the Regulation. However, shell with a considerable amount of flesh remaining will remain fully within the scope of the Regulation,” said Fiona.
Seafish is now working with Defra on guidelines to determine when shell is considered free of flesh. Previously visual inspection has been used but this has proved unreliable, so to assist in the interpretation of when shell is considered to be free of flesh and therefore exempt from the Regulation, Seafish will be carrying out work to establish some simple analytical data. This will quantify when shell is considered free of flesh and when enough flesh has been removed for it to be suitable for lower risk uses. If neither applies it would be included within the scope of the Regulation. Tests will be carried out on a variety of species to develop criteria appropriate for each species.
Within the Regulation there is also scope for small quantities of low risk material to be approved for uses outside of the Regulation. Seafish will be working with Defra to write the implementing measures for this new flexibility also.
These changes should increase the permitted uses for shellfish shell and reduce the cost burden of its disposal to industry.
