Seafood
Seafood includes all fresh or saltwater fish, shellfish, crustaceans, and other aquatic delicacies. It is divided into three groups. Demersal is white fish including cod and halibut. Pelagic is oil like fish such as herring and tuna. Shellfish including scallops and oysters.
Seafood has been an important food since the beginning of time because it can easily be hunted and gathered. There is debate over birds such as duck. However, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food & Drug Administration (FDA) do not classify them as seafood because they are not aquatic. Rather they live on top of the water, not in it.
The FDA regulates the seafood industry regarding safety regulations. This includes product safety as well as the cleanliness of processing plants. The tests conducted by the FDA are extensive. They have laboratories with qualified personnel all over the United States. They take samples from the plants to check for chemicals, contamination, decomposition, pathogens, additives, drugs, pesticides, and toxins. The tests are analyzed very carefully to ensure only quality products are leaving each plant on a daily basis. Most plants have their own quality control units, but the tests they conduct are not as technologically advanced as those conducted by the FDA.
The FDA carefully scrutinizes all seafood imported to the United States. They are notified of every seafood entry. They collect samples and analyze it the same as they do the samples from the United States plants. In addition, they check for misbranding of the seafood as well. The quickly invoke rejection of imports of seafood from any country where bad samples have been found. The goal is to protect the American People from purchasing and eating seafood that has not been properly handled and shipped.
It is predicted that the seafood market will crash around 2048 as the result of water pollution, over fishing, and problems with ecosystems in the ocean. The National Fisheries Institute disagrees with the prediction, claiming humanity is not creating any out of the ordinary issues for aquatic life.
Currently 22 million pounds of seafood are consumed worldwide each year. There are over 5,000 seafood processing plants in the United States, with 250 million servings of fish and chips consumed each year.
