Project Background
TRACE-FISH
Development and application of traceability tools for Irish shellfish and fish of economic and conservation concern
Ireland’s seafood industry is of considerable economic importance (>€1 billion GDP) to the Irish Green Economy, supporting thousands of jobs in rural areas. This industry faces challenges due to the lack of scientific-based traceability tools required by competent authorities to identify the harvest site of produce to tackle illegal fishing and food fraud and protect Irelands’ fishery sector and reputation as producers of safe and sustainable food. In particular, the bivalve shellfish sector is sensitive to harmful algal blooms, explicitly linked to the shellfish site of harvest, that can pose health hazards to consumers, leading to the industry suffering economic losses due to loss of reputation and consumer confidence. Traceability tools are also required to tackle the mislabelling of inferior produce as Irish and identify illegal fishing.
Project Aims & Benefits
This project aims to develop, test and deliver scientifically based, functioning seafood traceability tools to identify the site of harvest of produce with benefits to the Irish industry including protection of human health, food safety and protection and promotion of Irelands’ reputation of producing safe and healthy seafood. Shellfish producers and the public alike are becoming increasingly conscious of the quality, safety, and origin of their food. These traceability tools will, for example, facilitate the identification of non-Irish produce being labelled as Irish and will therefore increase consumer confidence and trust in food quality and safety while ensuring legal accountability. Therefore, these scientific-based traceability tools will promote the Irish shellfish industry as the first country in Europe to develop such scientific traceability tools, benefitting marketing of Irish seafood abroad and therefore, promote and protect Irish jobs in this industry.
The TRACE-FISH project aims to develop these traceability tools by building on preliminary research (Morrison et al., 2019, Bennion et al., 2019 & Bennion et al., 2021) by the project team. This research has demonstrated that by analysing the trace elemental composition of shellfish and determining the trace elemental fingerprints of bivalves, we can correctly identify the harvesting location of both blue mussel and king scallops with 100% success, including between two sites just 6 km apart within a single bay in the case of blue mussels. Additionally, these trace elemental fingerprints can even be identified with 100% success between two harvesting dates just six weeks apart from the same location.
What Are Trace Elemental Fingerprints?
Trace Elemental Fingerprinting (TEF) analyses the natural composition of seafood and can be used to determine its origin with high degrees of accuracy. The shells of bivalves such as mussels, oysters, scallops and clams are primarily composed of calcium carbonate. However, many other elements are naturally incorporated into the shell structure at relatively low concentrations during shell formation. The concentration of these elements in shells is dependant on their concentration in water in which these animals live. Concentration of trace elements in the environment is influenced by many factors and variation in these factors between sites produce site-specific trace elemental fingerprints that can be used to construct location specific unique chemical matrices to trace shellfish to where they were harvested.
Stakeholders & Partners
We are proud to work in collaboration with the following departments and agencies:
