Previous Award Winners
2023
Ms Polina Rusanova from Russia and
Mr Samuel Koduah from Ghana
Polina has background as a marine ecologist and is a researcher at the Institute for Biological Resources and Marine Biotechnology of the National Research Council of Italy, having completed a joint Masters degree in Environmental management at Irkutsk State University, Russia and Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, Germany. Polina’s research area concerns the impacts of the environment on seafood safety and quality. In particular she will present a paper at World Seafood Congress 2023 on microplastic contamination in elasmobranch fish and impacts on seafood quality.
Samuel works as a Fish Inspector in the Fish Inspection Department of the Ghana Standards Authority, located in Accra. His main duties are as a front-line officer undertaking the food safety inspection and auditing of fishing vessels and fish processing establishments listed for export of fishery products from Ghana. This work involves him in checking hygiene conditions of the facilities, its staff and HACCP food safety control systems, and the preparation of reports.
2019
Ms Stella Mbabazi from Uganda
and
Mr Justin Sundarranjan from India
Stella is an inspector with the Department of Fisheries Resources of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries, based in Entebbe, Uganda, where she has worked for five years undertaking official food safety controls in the fisheries value chain.
Justin works with Newport International, in Chennai, India where he is the Quality Control Manager in a plant producing pasteurised frozen crab for the US market. Previously he worked in similar functions in the Maldives and for the Thai Union Group.
Both candidates were supported with airfare, accommodation and conference fee, and attended the IAFI World Seafood Congress 2019 in Penang, Indonesia from 9 to 11th September 2019. Both attended with the full support of their employers and experienced the latest trends in fish technology, and meeting with scientists, NGOs, other Competent Authorities and fishery business operators from all over the world.
The Centre provides scientific support to the Competent Authority in the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries for sanitary controls for the export of fishery products. Since he started work in the Centre, he has undertaken a study regarding the illegal use of formaldehyde as a food additive to preserve fish and fishery products and is seeking to differentiate this from natural production during the decay process. He is also a member of a research team assessing the extent of chemical, microbiological and parasite contamination risks in fishery products in Indonesia, as part of a national risk profiling and assessment exercise.
2017
Mr Giri Rohmad Barokah from Indonesia
and
Hannah Antwi from Elmina, Ghana
Giri Rohmad Barokah, who was 26 years of age when he won this award, obtained a BSc degree in Fisheries (majoring in Aquatic Product Technology) from Bogor Agricultural University in 2014. He now works at the Research and Development Centre for Marine and Fisheries Product Competitiveness and Biotechnology as a researcher in the Food Safety and Environment Research Group.
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​Hannah Antwi
Hannh Antwi discusses fish smoking at the Africa Workshop of WSC 2017
comes from Elmina, a coastal fishing community in the Central Region of Ghana. She is a Fishery Extension Agent with the Central and Western Fishmongers Improvement Association (CEWEFIA), a registered Ghanaian NGO that empowers rural and coastal fishmongers and processors to improve their socio-economic status and ensure the well-being of their children. CEWEFIA is committed to ensuring fish quality and processing among fishmongers and processors.Hannah, who studied at Takoradi Polytechnic, works closely with Ghana’s Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development (MOFAD) and donors to promote improved fuel-efficient fish smoking
technologies and train small scale fish processors in improved quality, fish handling and processing practices in order to add value to fishery products, address health and economic concerns of the traditional method of processing fish and enhance the quality of smoked fish for both local and international markets. In the last three years, she has trained 450 persons from small scale enterprises, mostly run by women, in how to maintain the quality of their products, and in hygienic fish handling practices.
Since winning the award and attending the WSC in Iceland, Hannah has managed to secure a place on the UN University Fisheries Training Programme, operated by MATIS, Iceland. She hopes to continue her studies and enrol for MSc study in Iceland.
2015
Mr. Tebeio Tamton from Kiribati
We are pleased to announce that the winner of the IAFI Peter Howgate Award for 2015 is Mr.Tebeio Tamton from Kiribati. He will therefore be supported by IAFI to attend the World Seafood Congress 2013, to be held in Grimsby UK from 5th to 10th September 2015.
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Tebeio is a Verification Officer with the Competent Authority for Fish and Fishery Products of Kiribati, a newly established unit of the Fisheries Division within the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources Development. Kiribati is a small and remote developing island state in the SW Pacific Ocean and highly dependent on fishery product exports. Tebeio’s responsibilities include implementation and enforcement of official controls pertaining to food safety within the fishery sector (both land-based processing plants and offshore fishing vessels). As such he is responsible for ensuring that fishery business operators comply with the sanitary requirements of key export markets. Tebeio is also a key member of the team setting up official control systems in line with EU regulations, and has contributed technical content to the preparation of a dossier to submit to the European Commission with a view to obtaining access to this important market in the near future.
Tebeio, who is from Kiribati, obtained a degree in Marine Science from the University of the South Pacific, Fiji in 2010. He then worked for two years in the fish processing industry, firstly in Fiji, and then in Kiribas. In Fiji he worked in the Inventory Control, Procurement and Marketing Department for an EU-listed fish processor exporting tuna to global markets, where he was responsible for the management of documents and certificates required for the export of consignment of fishery products to different markets. He also developed and implemented training courses on hygiene and occupational health for operatives working in the processing line. Subsequently, he worked for a company in Kiribati, undertaking similar tasks, before joining the Fisheries Division of the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources Development in September 2013.
Tebeio has won the award in the face of competition from a field of highly qualified applicants from around the world. He was selected by the judges due to his clear and strongly demonstrated professional commitment to fish inspection and his combination of experience in the fish processing industry and as an official fish inspector, which is particularly relevant to the aims of IAFI. Tebeio hopes that his attendance at the World Seafood Congress in Grimsby, will help his career by providing exposure to different international approaches to the implementation and enforcement of official controls for fishery products, and that this will this help Kiribati to gain access to the EU market for its fishery products. The Board of the International Association of Fish Inspectors wholeheartedly endorses this aim. We send our congratulations to Tebeio and look forward to meeting him at the World Seafood Congress in Grimsby, later this year.
2012
Ms. Annamalai Jeyakumari from India
Ms. Annamalai Jeyakumari works as a Scientist in Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) in Cochin, Kerala, India and has won the 2012 Peter Howgate Award for young fish technologists.
The prize of EUR 500 has helped her to attend specific training on “Encapsulation of fish oils” under Dr. Utai Klinkesorn, Assistant Professor in Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agro-industry, Kasetsart University, Thailand during December 2012.
Ms.Jeyakumari completed her M. F. Sc. (Master in Fisheries Science) with specialization in Industrial Fish Processing Technology from the Fisheries College and Research Institute, Tamilnadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Tamilnadu, India during 2005. She is studying for her Ph.D with research workon the “Studies on delivery of Omega-3 fatty acids through emulsification and encapsulation” under the guidance of Dr. G. Venkateshwarlu, Principal Scientist, Fisheries Resources, Harvest and Post Harvest Division from Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai, India. She hopes that training exposure through the Peter Howgate Award will help to build her career in the area of fish processing and value addition. Her supervisor, Dr. G. Venkateshwarlu, praised her sincere hard work and her commitment to learn new analytical techniques in the area of fish quality and fish processing and new approaches for improving utilisation of underutilized fishery resources. She also acknowledges Dr. T. K. Srinivasa Gopal, Director and Dr. C. N. Ravishankar, Head, Fish Processing Division of Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Cochin, India for their guidance, constant support and encouragement. The Peter Howgate Award Committee expects that the overseas training programme followed will help to expand her experience in the field of fish processing technology and also promote this important field of research.
2011
Ms. Clara Bah from New Zealand
Ms. Clara Bah, a researcher at the Department of Food Science, University of Otago in New Zealand has won the first ever Peter Howgate Award for young fish technologists. The prize of EUR500 will help Clara to attend the New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology (NZIFST) conference in Rotorua, New Zealand at the end of June 2011, at which she will present her MSc research findings on the bioactivity of fish roes from five commercial New Zealand fish species. She hopes her paper (download here) will help to publicise how the extraction of useful bioactive compounds from parts of fish which are often discarded can help to improve the commercial value of fishery products.
