tailieunhanh - Chain of custody of fish marketed in Cochin city: safety and quality issues

The present study examines the chain of custody of fish marketed in Cochin City and its associated safety and quality issues. Among the data isolated, major intermediaries involved in the fish marketing channels of Cochin were identified and the role of each intermediary in the chain was covered in detail. | Chain of custody of fish marketed in Cochin city safety and quality issues International Journal of Management IJM Volume 7 Issue 3 March-April 2016 292 Article ID IJM_07_03_026 Available online at http IJM JType IJM amp VType 7 amp IType 3 Journal Impact Factor 2016 Calculated by GISI ISSN Print 0976-6502 and ISSN Online 0976-6510 IAEME Publication CHAIN OF CUSTODY OF FISH MARKETED IN COCHIN CITY SAFETY AND QUALITY ISSUES Sameera Shamsudheen and Alappat Ramachandran School of Industrial Fisheries Cochin University of Science and Technology Fine Arts Avenue Kochi-22 Kerala India ABSTRACT Chain of custody starts with a producer and ends with the ultimate consumer involving a number of intermediaries in between. The involvement of these marketing intermediaries provides services like head loading processing preservation packaging and transportation of fishes which results in addition of cost. The present study examines the chain of custody of fish marketed in Cochin City and its associated safety and quality issues. Among the data isolated major intermediaries involved in the fish marketing channels of Cochin were identified and the role of each intermediary in the chain was covered in detail. Quality concerns associated with the transportation of fish from the primary stage to consumers were also examined. In addition surveyed landing centres fishing harbours wholesale and retail markets were also monitored for assessing the limitations of infrastructure which could bring up serious issues in terms of safety and quality. The microbiological TPC MPN studies performed confirmed the progressive increase in microbial load as the fish travels from one stage to another. The organoleptic study Quality Index Method QIM substantiated the loss in freshness and quality of the fish as the chain prolonged. It could be concluded that the seafood products available from domestic markets of Cochin City requires a strict .