Overview
The Department's Division of Food Safety and Inspection is responsible for the regulatory oversight of wholesale and retail facilities who hold, distribute, or process harvested seafood for human consumption. Seafood includes finfish, all cooked molluscan shellfish, raw molluscan shellfish (other than clams, mussels, oysters, roe-on scallops), crustacean shellfish, and aquatic animals (frog, alligator, turtle, etc).
Activities involved in the processing of seafood may include but be not limited to: eviscerating, filleting, cutting, chopping, grinding, drying, dehydrating, freezing for parasite destruction, cold/hot smoking, curing, salting, cooking, pasteurizing, packaging, vacuum packing, labeling, storage, etc.
On this page, you will find guidance, policy and regulations developed to ensure consistent and safe processing of seafood and seafood products and wholesale and retail.
Regulatory Compliance Forms
The following forms have been developed for industry members as a tool to facilitate regulatory compliance with state and federal food safety regulations.
For the following forms, establishments should complete a form for each seafood species or seafood product processed, packaged or held in the establishment. Questions on these forms will be reviewed by inspectors on Seafood HACCP inspections.
For the following forms, establishments processing seafood products defined in the forms below should have all the relevant information on each form documented in coordination with the scheduled process developed for each seafood product processed. Relevant information identified on these forms defining critical limits must be identified with defined controls on the Seafood HACCP Plan(s) developed for each product processed.
FDA Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance
To facilitate compliance with allergen cross-contact and allergen cleaning requirements, the following was extracted from Appendix 9 and Appendix 10 of the FDA Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance- June 2022. Establishments processing seafood should review these questions to ensure compliance as these questions will be asked during Seafood HACCP and sanitation-based inspections.