History
IAFI was founded in September 1997, following the second FAO International Conference on Fish Inspection and Quality Control, held in Washington DC, USA in 1996. The next year, a group of 42 participants from around the world met in Toronto, Canada, and agreed on the merits of establishing an international association to represent the fish inspection community. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) offered to assume the coordinating role in the formation of the association and IAFI was created as a Company Limited by Guarantee under Canadian Law.
IAFI’s Inaugural Meeting was held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on October 4 and 5, 1999 in conjunction with the 3rd International Conference on Fish Inspection and Quality Control. An Executive Committee and a Board (which acts as a Steering Committee, representing seven zones across the world) was elected by membership. The meeting also provided members with an opportunity to review, amend and adopt the By-laws of the IAFI, as well as to provide the strategic direction on how the association should be organized and further developed. Since that inaugural meeting, IAFI has developed and extended its role and international linkages and continues to organize the World Seafood Congress every two years.
Charter and Mission
The International Association of Fish Inspectors aims to bring together fishery and aquaculture sector professionals from different backgrounds – government, the fish and seafood harvesting, processing and distribution sectors, academia, NGOs, public and private organizations to provide them opportunities to:
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Exchange information, ideas and methodologies for fish, seafood and associated products certification and inspection, including safety and quality management, fish/seafood processing technology, sustainability and ethical production and distribution systems
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Foster interaction, understanding and professional collaboration among individuals, organizations and governments for the purpose of facilitating the global export and import of fishery and aquaculture products, seafood and associated products and their consumption.
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Contribute to discussions and analysis of current fish/seafood inspection and control systems, regulatory regimes and fish/seafood processing infrastructure and suggest ways and means to improve fish, seafood and associated product quality and safety inspection and mitigate risk of fish/seafood origin consumer illness.
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Disseminate knowledge about fish, seafood and associated products inspection and methodologies employed.
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Encourage development of global fish, seafood and associated products standards and new fish/seafood inspection systems, methodologies and technologies with a view to fostering the development of sustainable blue economies
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Promote advancement of the state-of-the-art in research and education on fish/seafood inspection and control systems and risk analysis and their integration into everyday application.
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Provide services to its members to assist them in developing their careers as fish/seafood inspectors; and
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Provide strategic support to fish, seafood and associated product inspection, quality management and fish/seafood processing technology consultative, inspection and audit services to individuals and organizations.
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Executive Council of IAFI
President - Ian Goulding
Ian is a food scientist, who originally qualified in the UK as an Environmental Health Officer. He started his fish QC career as a technologist developing new retail products for the UK market, as well as setting up the associated processing lines and QC systems. Since 1986 Ian has worked in developing countries, including four years working at Alexandria University, Egypt establishing a fish technology training centre. Since 1994 Ian has been Managing Director of the consultancy firm Megapesca Lda of Portugal. Ian is a Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology (UK), and has worked on trade and market access issues in over 75 Pacific, Asian, and Latin American countries. Ian founded the IAFI Peter Howgate Award for young fish technologists and edits the popular monthly newsletter “Fishfiles Lite” on EU fisheries matters. Ian has UK and Portuguese nationalities and speaks English and Portuguese.
President-elect - Jayne Gallagher
Jayne Gallagher is CEO & Founder Honey & fox Pty Ltd. Australia and IAFI Board.
Past president - Mark Boulter
Mark Boulter has worked in the seafood industry for 35 years in industry representative and commercial roles across the UK and Australia. These have included QA Manager at Sydney Fish Market, working for Seafish, the UK industry peak body, and Executive Officer for the Australian Seafood Importers Association. He led the team that ran the World Seafood Congress in Penang in 2019. He now works part-time for the University of Tasmania training folk in bivalve shellfish safety.
Secretary - Mike Dillon
Available soon...
Treasurer - Carey Bonnel
Carey Bonnell, Head, School of Fisheries – Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University
Mr. Bonnell has gained broad experience in the area of fisheries sustainability starting initially with his early upbringing in a small fishing community on Newfoundland’s Northern Peninsula. He began his career in 1997 as a technical assistant at the Fishing Technology Unit, progressing through educational roles with the Marine Institute and the College of the North Atlantic including a one year international work placement with MI in the Philippines in 1998. In 2000 Carey moved to Nunavut and progressed through various positions from Director, Acting Assistant Deputy Minister and Acting Deputy Minister of the Government of Nunavut’s Department of Environment. Following the operation of an independent fisheries consultancy in 2004, Mr. Bonnell joined the Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation early in 2005 as an Industrial Liaison Officer and was promoted to the position of Managing Director in January 2007. In January of 2010 Carey was appointed as Head of the School of Fisheries within the Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University which is the position he currently holds today.
Executive Council Members
Olivier Hottlet
Hottlet Frozen Foods
Belgium
Clare Winkel
Integrity Compliance Solutions
Australia
Christopher Hoareau
Seychelles Bureau of Standards
Seychelles
Regional Representatives
Africa
Yahya Mgawe
Fisheries Education and Training Agency
Tanzania
South America
Carmen Pedroza-Gutiérrez
Universidade Nacional Autónoma de México
Mexico
North America
Jon Bell
NOAA National Seafood Inspection Laboratory
USA
Europe
Ivan Bartolo
Sea Fish Industry Authority
UK
Asia
Sirilak Suwanrangsi
Thai Union
Thailand
Board Member At Large
Heather Burke
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Canada
Executive Director
John Emberley
Retired
Canada
Awards Director
Margarida Correia
Megapesca Lda
Portugal