Quality inspection of seafood and implementation of HACCP in China

With the rapid development of the Chinese fishery and aquatic product processing industry and the opening of domestic and international markets, China is paying more attention to the inspection of seafood quality. The Chinese fisheries industry has developed rapidly since the 1990s. In 1995 the total fish output reached 25,170,000 tons. In 1994, 29.7% of the total seafood output was processed in different ways and turned out 3,349,000 tons of processed seafood which equals about 6,365,000 tons of raw fish, an increase of 67.5% compared with 1990. The ratio of processed seafood to total seafood output increased 7% from 1990 to 1994. There are about 4500 seafood processing plants in China and most of them are of a middle or small scale. The degree and type of product processing have changed considerably. Various packing and pre-processed frozen products have increased greatly as new convenient and safe products have been introduced to the market. A domestic seafood market is rapidly developing in China.