BAP completes auditor training programme in Thailand, sees record attendance of 43 participants
 

 

By the end of June this year, the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) programme has certified 1,290 facilities around the world. At about the same period, it has just wrapped up an auditor training course in Thailand, accrediting a record of 43 auditors.

The Global Aquaculture Alliance's Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) programme has recently completed an auditor training course for a record number of 43 auditors in Bangkok, Thailand.

Happening in June 19-25, the course saw attendees coming mainly from Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and the US. BAP's integrity team seeks to fulfill one of its primary functions by training and accrediting potential candidates as auditors serving its certification standards. As part of the programme's requirements, participants are expected to submit evening assignments and pass an end-of-course examination.

The course dealt with all BAP seafood processing plant standards (Issue 4, Revision 2, December 2015); BAP finfish and crustacean farm standards (including land based aquaculture systems: ponds, fresh / brackish water cage farms and marine cage farms); BAP salmon farm standards; BAP finfish, crustacean and mollusk hatchery and nursery standards; BAP feed mill standards; and the new BAP mollusk farm standards. For the first time, the course also provided participants an opportunity to receive a Seafood HACCP Course Training Certificate authorised by the Seafood HACCP Alliance.

Instructors for the seven-day course include Ken Corpron, BAP programme integrity specialist; seafood specialist Guy Ewing; Dr. Steve Otwell of the Seafood HACCP Alliance; and Jeff Peterson, BAP training coordinator.
 

Corpron talked about implementing the latest BAP Finfish and Crustacean Hatchery and Nursery Standards, while Peterson addressed the recently released BAP Mollusk Farm Standards. Additionally, Otwell provided an update on the requirements of the US Food Safety Modernization Act.

According to the Global Aquaculture Alliance, 74 new processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills have achieved BAP certification in June this year. By the end of the month, an overall 1,290 facilities globally are certified, representing a 22% increase in the first half of 2016.