Quarantine

Inspection

Quality Control

About NFQS

Beloved seafood, reliable quality control from sea to table.

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Legal basis

  • Act on Environmentally Friendly Agriculture & Fishing Industry Promotion and Supervising& Supporting Organic products
  • Detailed Implementation Process on the Certification of Organic Fish and Fishery Products (Notification No.2013-20 of the NFQS)

Objects for Certification (Notification No.2013-20 and No.4 of the NFQS)

  • Organic fish and fishery products: laver, oyster, mussel, sea mustard, kelp
  • Organic processed food: any produced, processed, and distributed food using organic seafood
  • Non-antibiotic fish and fishery products: halibut, rainbow trout, eel, abalone, leg lobster
  • Products without active treatment agent: laver, sea mustard, hijikia, kelp, dried laver, dried sea mustard, salted sea mustard
  • Person in charge: a person purchasing products certified under No.1 or No.4 and repackaging with different quantity (excluding unpackaged products and randomly packaged products)

Certification standard

  • Certification standard checklist in document check
    • Management control: check a production plan including production process
    • Farm condition: check the water quality test result conducted within 1 year
    • Seedlings selection: check the health status (free from disease)
    • Feed and nutrition control: annually check feed examination result
  • Certification standard checklist in on-site examination (Appendix 3 of the Regulation)
    • Management control: Check if at least one appropriate production manager is appointed when a production group needs certifying. (Appropriate manager means a person in charge of preliminary examination completing over 6 hour-training of quality control)
    • Cultivation control
      • Check if each faming facility labels the identify number and confirms the farming record
      • Check if prohibited drugs for animal use, chemicals or organic acids are used
    • Animal welfare and disease control
      • Check if the record of prescription and usage of animal medication is maintained in case of disease outbreak
      • Check if drug-free interval/withdrawal period elapsed twice for shipment (at least 1 week of the period)
      • Check if medication containing water tanks are under control (labelled with the medication information)
      • Check if medication containers are separately maintained with proper lock device
    • Feed and nutrition control: check if prohibited synthetic chemical compound, synthetic nitrogen, non-protein nitrogen compound, or other materials were used
    • Verification of product standard
      • Organic fish and fishery products: drugs for animal use should remain less than one tenth of residue quantity permitted
      • Non-antibiotic fish and fishery products: drugs for animal use should remain less than half of residue quantity permitted
      • Products without active treatment agent: use of organic acid is prohibited
    • Harvesting products: check the record of shipment of certified products
    • Transportation management: check appropriate oxygen level, and hygienic management of water and ice used in transporting
    • Ingredients for processing
      • Check if non-organic ingredients other than water and salt should not exceed 5% of weight of the product
      • Check if water and salt are appropriately used under Article 5 of Drinking Water Management Act and Article 7 of Food Sanitation Act, respectively
    • Raw material management: check labels of organic food, delivery statement, transaction record and the certificate when raw materials are used
    • Processing method
      • Check if prohibited additives, supplement agent, or other materials are used which chemically react or mutate food
      • Check if prohibited materials including ionizing radiation, asbestos are used which negatively affect food and the environment
    • Packaging: check if prohibited materials including synthetic germicide, preserved agent, fumigants are used
    • Facility standard for work: check if the facility meets the standard of Appendix 14 of Enforcement Regulation of Food Sanitation Act (Facility Standard by Type of Business)
    • Quality control of the product: check if certified products have labels of lot number, standard barcode, or electric tag

Labelling (Appendix 5 of the Regulation)

  • “Organic food” can be marked as “organic fish and fishery product” or “organic processed food” by its type
    organic mark

Certification apply process

  • Apply → document check → on-site examination → notify the result and issue certification → follow-up management (semi-annually or quarterly inspect the production process, semi-annually distribution process, random inspect)