Traceability as a Key of Seafood Safety: Reassessment and Possible Applications

ABSTRACT The aquaculture sector is among the most significant and fastest-growing sectors of the global agrifood system. The production of aquaculture is not only increasingly important as a primary protein source to feed the world's population, but also of enormous importance as a trade good in global commerce. However, the industry faces many challenges to meet global demands including the over-exploited natural stocks, global warming, pollution, perishability, widespread food frauds, and food-borne diseases. A major requirement to meet the increasing demand for seafood is seafood security and safety. To ensure the security and safety of seafood, a variety of regulations and techniques have been developed. However, the current techniques have several limitations, such as not being able to provide reliable information with regard to the origin of farmed specimens, the instability of the methods, and the lack of any historical records for the food. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a traceability technique that could record the history of seafood from sea to table. This article provides an overview of the current regulations and traceability techniques to ensure the safety and security of seafoods. We suggest that the PCR-DGGE technique is a viable method to meet both traceability and safety requirements for seafoods at the same time.