Fish processors undergo training on hygiene
The Department of Marine and Fisheries Sciences at the University of Ghana, Legon, has trained some selected members of the National Fish Processors and Traders Association on hygienic fish handling and processing technics to ensure improved quality of fish for consumers.
In all, 25 members of the association from Accra and Tema who were taken through a two-week training course designed by the department were also introduced to a modern fish processing technology which uses gas for smoking fish instead of firewood.
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During the two weeks the participants were taken through fish identification, safe fish handling, the benefits of small scale fish processing compared to large scale fish processing, technologies for fish processing, quality assurance, packaging methods, storage and transportation, record keeping, marketing methods, customer relations and practical fish processing.
The participants who were all women were taught how to prepare Thrunnus Albacares, popularly known as Yellowfin Tuna; Butter Fish (Stromateus Fiatola) and Chub Makeral (Scomber Scolias) and how to smoke them with gas ovens.
Gas oven
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the lead facilitator of the programme Professor Francis Kofi Ewusie Nunoo, said improving the quality of processed fish was critical to improving marketing opportunities for the processors as quality standards were an important requirement for trading in fish across borders and in the local market.
He said through the course, which was designed with support from the Skills Development Fund, the department aimed at improving the handling, processing and packaging practices of fish in line with international standards.
Prof Nunoo said the gas oven which was developed in the country by the Ghana Regional Appropriate Technology Industrial Service (GRATIS) Foundation was safe as it produced low Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), a cancer causing chemical found in the smoke from firewood used for smoking fish.
“After testing the fish smoked using the gas oven we found that the PAH level was very low and within the acceptable limit. We found that the level was between 0.3 and 0.5. The expected level should be below 12. But PAH level of smoked fish on the market are as high as 25 and 30 and that is not safe for consumption at all,” he said.
“Over the years we have been researching into fish and the various ways of smoking fish. We found that consumers are not happy with the quality of fish on the market as some of the smoked fish are too black because of the smoke and the smokers also get tired because of the methods they use. They get respiratory diseases, among others,” he said.
Prof Nunoo said with the new fish processing facility, the processors got a good output which could be exported easily “because often when the fish processors use the traditional method of smoking fish and they export, their products are rejected and this results in losses for the traders.”
Benefit
One of the beneficiaries, Esther Kwarantemaa, expressed her gratitude to the designers of the course which she described as an eye opener and said she was happy that she would now process fish hygienically and safe for consumption.
She indicated that the gas oven was expensive for ordinary fish processors to acquire, and appealed to well-meaning organisations and individuals to support the fish processors in that direction.
She said the members of the association would consider forming cooperatives to access financial support from financial institutions.