(The needs addressed in the original Handbook application remain current [Appendix 1]).
Despite the exceptional diversity of Australian seafood, there is no relevant, comprehensive identification guide to assist Industry personnel or consumers. This fact was highlighted recently in a FRDC-funded market survey of the excellent 1994 Australian Seafood Catering Manual (Kane et al, 1994, hereafter referred to as ‘The Catering Manual’). This report assessed the success and usefulness of The Catering Manual, which included the names of over 175 domestic seafood species and photographs of 54 but virtually no information on how to distinguish them. Remarkably, 63% of Catering Manual users surveyed use it to identify species (QDPI, 1997). This book has pictures of less than 12% of domestic seafood species and only very infrequent notes on how to identify them but is used by a majority of Industry personnel as an identification guide. There is an obvious need for a thorough and comprehensive identification guide.
FRDC recognised the need for such a guide and in 1994 funded the “Handbook of Australian Seafood”. However, during the Handbook’s production, the following issues have been raised:
• The original Handbook grant application allowed for the inclusion of 60 imported and 240 domestic species. However, we have now identified 466 domestic species, an increase of over 90%. (Imported species are addressed below). The inclusion of these additional species is critical to the Handbook’s success; a comprehensive guide would instil greater confidence in, and awareness of, the range of products available and would help promote less fashionable seafoods.
• A repeatable, objective method of identifying the flesh of species by protein fingerprinting has been used in the production of the Handbook to date. Such a technique is required when fish substitution is suspected and the inclusion of protein fingerprints in the recently published South East Fishery Quota Species—an Identification Guide (CSIRO, 1997, hereafter referred to as ‘The SEF Guide’) has been welcomed by, among others, the Australian Government Solicitor’s office (Appendix 2). It is important that this technique be applied to all species included in the Handbook, including the additional ones discussed above.
• Marketing Names for Fish and Seafood in Australia, an authoritative guide to correct marketing names for Australian seafood, was published in 1995. However, Handbook-related research has identified problems with domestic species included in the book (imported species are addressed below). A number of common commercial species are not included and some, worthy of unique marketing names, are currently placed in ‘catch-all’ groups (e.g., Lutjanus russelli, marketed widely as Moses Perch, is currently included under Sea Perch, Lutjanus species).
• While examining fillets to collect data on distinguishing features, we discovered numerous useful characters that, to our knowledge, have not been documented for identification purposes anywhere else. The comprehensive inclusion of this data in the fillet identification section of the Handbook would provide a unique and valuable resource for the post-harvest sector of the Industry and to consumers, and would set the standard for such work worldwide.
• Preliminary research into frozen seafood species imported into Australia has shown the need for a thorough investigation of its composition. The Marketing Names Guide included about 50 imported species. We recently surveyed eight importers who, between them, import only 14 (28%) of those but who also import 30 or so additional species. We propose to review the composition of Australia's seafood imports and summarise our findings in a second Handbook dedicated to imported species.
