Ministerial Order No. 26/2023 approving the specific hygienic and sanitary procedures for the production of fishery products.

This Ministerial Order approves the specific sanitary procedures for fishery production. These hygienic and sanitary procedures, consisting of nine Chapters divided into 73 articles and a glossary, regulate the production and processing, transformation, distribution and trade of fishery products, derivatives and feed for aquatic animals and related operations. Hygiene-sanitary procedures apply: a) with regard to personal hygiene, to all operators regardless of the activity carried out; b) primary production, such as fishing, including the collection of live products and aquaculture; c) operations associated with primary production, such as landing, transport and storage of fishery products; d) location, design and construction of production units, such as freezer vessels, factory vessels, ice factories and processing establishments; e) all stages of production and processing, transformation and distribution, which take place after the primary production of fishery products; f) specific operating requirements of fishery product transformation processes.
The Procedures are divided as follows: General provisions (Chap. I); Hygiene requirements (Chap. II); Registry (Chap. III); General structural and equipment requirements (Chap. IV); General requirements for post-fishing operations during and after the unloading and landing of fishery products (Chap. V); Specific requirements for primary production (Chap. VI); Specific requirements for freezer and factory vessels (Chap. VII); Specific requirements applicable to any stage of the fishery production chain, after the primary production stage (Chap. VIII); Specific requirements for fishery product processing processes (Chap. IX).