30 November, 2007

SHETLAND'S quality control watchdog for fish farming has been awarded a valuable contract to monitor E coli in farmed shellfish in the northern isles.

SSQC Ltd, which is part of the Scalloway based NAFC Marine Centre, will operate the most northerly part of the national Food Standards Agency programme to classify shellfish harvesting areas.

Analytical services chief with SSQC, Niall O'Rourke, said they had already been carrying out this work under subcontract to the Fisheries Research Service, in Aberdeen, but now had a direct contract with the FSA.

"Instead of going through a third party, we will be able to deal direct with Food Standards Agency Scotland, which will improve communications and streamline the whole process," Mr O'Rourke said.

"We will now also be processing samples from Orkney as well as Shetland, which broadens our remit and widens our customer base."

Samples are collected from sites around Shetland and Orkney by official control sampling officers and brought to SSQC Ltd for analysis. Currently they process more than 650 samples annually for E coli.

"The contract is also extremely good news for the microbiology team here at SSQC Ltd - helping stabilise income for the next three years at least. It helps to cement our position and guarantees a substantial amount of work for us for the future," he said.

Carol Phillips, SSQC Ltd's development manager, added: "This is a very important part of the services we offer for the shellfish industry. The new contract enables us to deliver what we set out to do in our business plan - to build on the services we provide for the local food and drink industries in general and the seafood sector in particular."