Filleting, Packing and Hygiene Procedure

Purpose. Sets the work method and hygiene rules for receiving, filleting, portioning, packing and coding product in the plant.

1.Entry and hygiene

Workers must change into clean plant clothing, cover hair and beards, remove jewellery, wash and sanitise hands at the entry station and step through the boot wash before entering production. Hands must be washed again after handling waste, touching the face, using the toilet or any break. Illness must be reported to the supervisor before starting.

2.Receival

Every lot must be checked for temperature, condition, odour and lot identification before it enters production and recorded in the Processing Batch and Traceability Register. Product above four degrees must be placed on hold and the Quality and Food Safety Coordinator told. Product must move from receival to the chiller or the line without delay.

3.Filleting

Fish must be filleted on a sanitised board with a sharp knife, using the cut-resistant glove on the non-knife hand and the steel kept within reach. Fillets must be trimmed, pin boned and checked for bones, blood spots, bruising and parasites, and placed on ice or in the chilled tote. Product must not stand on the bench at ambient temperature for more than the time in the food safety program.

• Sharp knife, cut-resistant glove, steel at hand
• Cut away from the body
• Fillets to ice immediately
• Frames and offal to the waste bin, not the floor

4.Sashimi grade

Sashimi grade loins must be produced only from harvest lots certified as sashimi grade on the harvest record, handled with dedicated sanitised boards and knives, kept below two degrees, and packed and labelled as sashimi grade with the harvest date and lot identifier.

5.Packing and coding

Product must be packed to the customer specification for weight, count and pack format, with the batch code, product name, net weight, pack date, use by or best before date and storage instructions on every carton. Every carton must pass through metal detection. The batch record must be completed with inputs, outputs, yields and the line and shift.

6.Cleaning

Boards, knives and totes must be sanitised at each break and at shift end. The line must be cleaned to the master cleaning schedule, verified by the supervisor and swabbed at the frequency in the food safety program. Cleaning chemicals must be used at the labelled dilution with the protective equipment listed in the Chemicals and Treatments Register.