Shellfish Safety Supervisors course

About this course

The University of Tasmania is pleased to have partnered with Oysters Australia and FRDC to develop this shellfish safety supervisors course.

The Shellfish Safety Supervisors course was designed to:

• Provide supervisors/managers/business owners with a clear understanding of the food safety requirements that apply to bivalve shellfish and actions they (or their workers) should take to produce safe bivalve shellfish,
• To outline the complexity of growing filter-feeding animals in shared waterways,
• To help employers demonstrate to potential commercial customers/food auditors that they have a skilled and knowledgeable workforce that understands their food safety requirements.

On completion of the course, you will have a clear understanding of why bivalve shellfish must be harvested and handled following a tight set of requirements to ensure that product sent to market is safe to eat, and your business's role in meeting these food safety requirements.

Who should do this course series?

Supervisors/managers/business owners in the bivalve shellfish industry or staff wanting to step up to one of those positions.

Course Structure

The course is fully online. It is delivered 50:50 through a self-paced component and a half-day face-to-face online presentation/discussion session. It is estimated to take around 8 learning hours. You will be provided access to your course online via the University’s Short Course Platform. The self-paced element you can enter and exit any time, to enable you to study anytime and anywhere. The face-to-face online element will be offered once per month.

The course will outline the biology and marine environmental conditions required to grow bivalve shellfish safely. It will outline the legislative and monitoring requirements for the safe harvest, transport and storage of bivalve shellfish. It will explain that bivalve shellfish are a high-risk food and therefore need to be managed by a highly prescriptive set of food safety rules.

The course includes basic knowledge of:

1. Regulations and guidelines pertinent to shellfish safety
   • basic understanding of aspects of food law relevant to bivalve mollusc production and sale including relevant sections of the FSANZ food standards code, the ASQAP manual, State and Territory Food Acts definitions of safe food, The Export Control Act
2. Factors of shellfish that make them a high-risk food group
   • basic biology and physiology of bivalve molluscs and related sources of food safety risk
3. Contaminants of concern
   • pathogens that can occur in bivalve molluscs including Salmonella, E.coli (indicator organism), Hepatitis A virus, Norovirus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus
   • algal biotoxins that pose a food safety risk in bivalve molluscs, including amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP), neurotoxic shellfish poisoning (NSP), diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) and paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP)
   • chemical contaminants such as heavy metals and Agvet chemicals
4. Controls of risks pre-harvest
   • Understanding sources of environmental contamination that can present a food safety risk in the growing and harvesting of bivalve molluscs, and related food safety controls, including risks associated with both aquaculture and wild fisheries
   • harvest area classification processes including the need for defined water and product sampling to maintain a harvest areas classification status
   • basic principles of water sampling and test methods
   • the understanding of the harvest area opening and closure process and the periods for which harvest areas might be closed depending on the cause of the closure
   • the concept of Harvest Area Management plans and Marine Biotoxin Management plans and how these are operated
5. Control of risks post-harvest
   • risks related to vibrio’s and the temperature and other control methods being adopted by industry to reduce these risks
   • principles and associated control measures relating to effective purging of shellfish, including methods, including relaying and depuration, when practised according to state and territory legal and regulatory requirements
   • stock handling and storage risks and control methods
   • risks and related control methods to prevent cross-contamination, including sorting and cleaning, Good Hygiene Practices
   • facilities and equipment used in the growing and harvesting of bivalve molluscs, including features required to meet regulatory requirements
6. Recall procedures and the requirements under the FSANZ Food Industry Recall Protocol including the benefits of mock recall training.

The course has been designed with a mix of teaching styles, to provide an engaging platform for study.

You will be required to engage in some discussive assignments in the second half of this course to complete your course successfully. On completion, you will receive a digital certificate. Materials will be available for 6 months after completing the course.

What you will learn

On completion of the course, you will be able to:

1. Explain the biology and marine environmental conditions required to grow bivalve shellfish safely
2. Explain the legislative and monitoring requirements for the safe harvest, transport and storage of bivalve shellfish
3. Describe how to implement a product recall using the FSANZ protocol

Meet your instructors