Safety and salvage: Governance and utilization of aquatic food after harvest

Fish processing leaves a lot behind. Heads, viscera, frames, skin and low-value species are now often turned into protein, collagen and other ingredients, which cuts waste and fits the aims of a circular food system. But aquatic foods also carry safety risks, from heavy metals taken up in polluted waters to poor handling along the supply chain. The two issues are usually studied separately, yet they meet in the same material.Viscera, for example, are a common target for recovery and can also be where contaminants build up. Reusing them without care could carry those contaminants into new products. Circular models also move material between food, feed and other uses, which can create new routes for pathogens. In the other direction, safety rules and controls can decide whether a side-stream can be used at all. Few studies look at these links directly.This Research Topic brings together work on aquatic food safety and byproduct recovery after capture or harvest. We are interested in how recovery can reduce waste without adding risk, where trade-offs arise, and which processing, monitoring, regulatory and supply-chain measures can manage them.To gather further insights into the safety and use of aquatic foods after capture or harvest, we welcome submissions on safety, recovery or both. Risk assessment, governance and case analysis, and biochemical or processing research are all in scope. Studies on a single aspect are welcome if they deal with the post-harvest chain rather than production alone. Themes include:Frameworks for identifying and managing risk points along the aquatic food chain, including lessons from food-safety incidents;Occurrence, seasonal variation and health-risk assessment of contaminants such as heavy metals in fish from urbanized and industrialized waters;Contaminant accumulation in different fish tissues and processing byproducts, and what it means for their recovery and use;Enzymatic, biochemical and other methods for recovering protein, collagen and other compounds, including the safety and quality of the resulting products;Pathogen, contaminant and other safety risks in circular aquatic-food systems, and the controls, monitoring and regulation used to manage them;Case studies, policy analysis and industry experience on balancing waste reduction with food safety. Topic editors: Adams Ovie Iyiola Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86740/safety-and-salvage-governance-and-utilization-of-aquatic-food-after-harvest