Risk prioritisation of (emerging) contaminants in aquaculture production

The European Union (EU) food safety legislative framework is designed to guarantee the safety of the entire food production chain through a comprehensive 'from farm to fork' approach. Chemical safety of the food production chain, encompassing contaminants, veterinary drugs and pesticide residues, food/feed additives, is further regulated by a specific legislative framework. Regulation (EU) 2017/625 requires each Member State to ensure that official controls are carried out to verify compliance with food, feed and animal health laws. These controls are to be performed in a risk-based manner through specifically designed multi-annual national control plans. In Norway, where aquaculture represents a highly developed sector, systematic monitoring of chemical contaminants throughout the aquaculture production chain is essential to safeguard food safety and identify potential risks to both public and animal health. Therefore, the present work programme was focused on the development and subsequent application of a ranking methodology for the prioritisation of chemical contaminants to be included in the Norwegian national monitoring programmes for the aquaculture production chain of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) fillet and complete feed for salmonids. The fellow was involved in the identification of the assessment criteria to be included in the semi-quantitative methodology, the selection of appropriate metrics for each criterion and testing the methodology on the selected contaminants relevant for Norwegian farmed fish production chain. The developed methodology systematically incorporates the assessment of contaminants present in feed materials, fish feed and fish fillet and is intended to provide documented basis for risk-based prioritisation of contaminants for monitoring plans.