Quality & Trace-ability

We are highly committed to quality and freshness of our raw materials which comes from the unpolluted waters around us. Due to this our products are the best environmental choice around the globe. Our fishermen are well trained and fishing boats are well equipped with the most modern facilities.

The fish is transported in refrigerated trucks as per the company requirements and at receiving, goods are checked same as company goods and only acceptable goods are received.

For each lot boat details are received from the suppliers. Time to time company representatives do inspections on boats – (company own suppliers and contractors) to check its hygienic conditions and operations.

Our processing plants work strictly according to HACCP rules. A certified quality controller critically tests each fish for Histamine and other health issues. Our Products are packed in to European standard approved by the EU.

These are the checks conducted by the factory when receiving the fish lot

– Organoleptic checks

– Laboratory testing

– Temperature checking

Organoleptic Checks

These parameters are checked under organoleptic checks. Those are as follows.

• Nature of the eyes
• Nature of the skin
• Nature of the skin mucus
• Gill color
• Gill and Flesh smell
• Flesh color

Histamine level was checked for each individual fish, since Histamine is a hazardous chemical which can be  “CRITICAL” to the end user’s health. Acceptable Histamine level of Tuna for European Union 100ppm. If any fish exceeds this limit of 100 ppm, it was rejected. in order to overcome this Histamine risk, Sri Lankan tuna processor’s have reduce their Histamine control level up to 5 ppm for composite samples and 10 ppm for individual samples (these control levels may differ with the processor).

Laboratory Testing

Temperature Checking

Body temperature of the receiving fish should be below 4ºC. If any fish which exceeds this temperature limit, was rejected.

If even one parameter was out of the acceptable level, the fish was rejected.

In talking of quality we focus on 2 main aspects – food safety and traceability

We at North West Fisheries, we strictly follow HACCP method on quality assurance and control standards.Temperature at each & every step is controlled along with the other critical control points and critical points. In this respect we are obliged to ensure that any harmful material is not consumed, as it is to be achieved continuous official control for the removals of the bad Quality is very widely applied.

Food Safety

Food safety is becoming an increasingly important issue for any food industry. Consumers are ever more wary about their health and need to be assured that their fish is healthy and safe to eat. That’s why we – North West Fisheries is keen on food safety.

We trust and got to know from our experience that the fish is highly perishable product if not handled correctly. That’s why we have optimized  post-harvest handling, and quality assurance systems which are  required  to reduce post harvest losses and maximize the value of the catch. This is even more important in a context of dwindling resources and helps to improve the sustainability of the industry as a whole.

The key to food safety and quality assurance systems is traceability. Traceability lies at the heart of any certification system: without traceability, quality or safety cannot be ensured to the customer

Traceability

Traceability is actually a means of keeping a track of the whole process of the production of a product, right from the place of its origin till the point of its sale. This is basically done through proper record keeping from the very beginning of the production process. It also provides basic information to the consumers like whether the product has been made keeping human welfare in mind, whether it has any ingredients that can cause allergies, and so on. Though this adds to the cost of production in a way, but at the same time it streamlines the process too.

Our products themselves have a very clear,reliable and complete traceability with their labeling.We cater products that can be traced back even up to the particular vessels’s information which the product came from through a particular processing plant.Every time we are committed to fill our customers with every kind of required information through a particular product itself with the most simple and representative manner. In any case, an end customer can investigate it by tracing back with the information given on the product labels through the processor. This will further depict the reliability of our products.