---
id: KB-AL-009
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/food-and-beverage/aquaculture-and-fish-processing
idioma: en
categoria: sector-alimentacion
subcategoria: pesca
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-AL-006, KB-CS-024]
citadoPor: [KB-AL-017]
---

# Aquaculture and fish processing

_Batches that merge at processing, and traceability you must be able to rebuild from the tray._

**Responde a:** traceability in a fish plant · aquaculture farming documentation · fresh fish batch traceability · processing plant health registration

A fish processing plant faces traceability in its most awkward form: raw material comes in from several origins — own cages, the auction, imports — and product leaves in trays whose batch must be able to take you back to the water it came from.

## Where the chain breaks

| Point | What merges | What to record |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Harvest or landing | Several cages or several landings the same day | Which origin enters each intake, with dates |
| Processing | Different intakes in the same run | Which intakes make up each production batch |
| Packing | Production batches across different formats | Which batch goes into which format and with what date |
| Dispatch | Orders to several customers from one batch | Where each batch went |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The second row decides everything else and is recorded worst, because plants work by shift rather than by batch. Without a record of which intakes made up each processing run, backward traceability stops being data and becomes an estimate based on dates — and an estimate does not answer a health alert.

## The detail that usually fails an audit

> [!WARNING]
> The health registration number on the label must be that of the **establishment that actually handled the product**, not of the company issuing the invoice. When processing or packing is subcontracted to another plant — common at seasonal peaks — that number changes and the label must follow. It is a failure invisible from the office and the first thing an inspector cross-checks.

## What to hold per supplier and per batch

**En corto**

- For raw material: origin, gear or production method, and its intake documentation.
- For transport: temperature and time, because here the cold chain is part of the product.
- For the plant: cleaning records, controls and the personnel on that shift.
- And for the customer: which batch each dispatch note corresponds to.

## When an alert arrives

1. **Narrow forwards first** — Which customers received that batch. It decides the recall's size and is the most urgent.
2. **And backwards afterwards** — Which intakes made it up and what origin they came from.
3. **Record the decision, not only the action** — What was recalled, what was released and on what criteria, with a name and a time.

> [!NOTE]
> It applies equally to canning, salting, smoking and chilled ready meals: the process changes, but the point where traceability is lost is always the same — where several intakes become a single run.

**What if we buy it already filleted?**

Then your traceability starts at that purchase: ask your supplier for the origin batch and keep it.

**How long must records be kept?**

Longer than the product's shelf life, with margin; for frozen that means years.

**Is a paper plant logbook enough?**

It is if digitised the same day; at month end nobody can tell which run was which.

## Ejemplos

**A plant receives an alert about a raw material consignment from three weeks earlier.**

- Checks which processing runs included it and which customers got those batches

→ Recalls two specific batches instead of three weeks of production for lack of narrowing.

**Batches merge at cutting and the trace breaks there.**

- Records what went into each output batch

→ The backward journey survives cutting.

**A client asks about one specific tray.**

- Checks that tray's batch

→ You reach the intake.

**Origin documentation arrives on paper with the box.**

- Captures it on receipt

→ The paper stops being the only copy.

**A batch must be flagged and nobody knows who received it.**

- Checks what went out of that batch and where

→ Those affected are warned.

**Supplier certificates expire without warning.**

- Records validity on receipt

→ The warning arrives before the next purchase.