Table 1

Common processing, preservation, and storage techniques used for seafood groups that are sources of potential occupational exposure to seafood products

Seafood category	Processing techniques	Preservation techniques	Packaging of final products	Sources of occupational exposure to seafood products
Crustaceans:
Crabs, lobsters, crayfish	Cooking (boiling or steaming), “tailing” lobsters, “cracking”, butchering, and degilling crabs, manual picking of meat, cutting, grinding, mincing, scrubbing and washing, cooling	Deep freezing, pasteurising, sterilisation, liquid freezing	In refrigerated containers, polyethylene bags, or in cans	Inhalation of wet aerosols from lobster “tailing”, crab “cracking”, butchering and degilling, boiling, scrubbing, and washing, spraying, cutting, grinding, mincing, prawn “blowing”, cleaning processing lines/tanks with pressurised water

Prawns	Heading, peeling, deveining, prawn “blowing” (water jets or compressed air)	Deep freezing, drying	In refrigerated containers or in cans	Dermal contact from unprotected handling of prawn; hand immersion in water containing extruded gut material

Molluscs:
Oysters, mussels clams, scallops, abalone		Washing, oyster “shucking”, shellfish depuration, chopping, dicing, slicing		Deep freezing, freezing, sterilisation, smoking, cooking	In refrigerated containers or in cans	Inhalation of wet aerosols from oyster “shucking”, washing
						Dermal contact from unprotected handling of molluscs

Finfish:
Various species		Heading, degutting, skinning, mincing, filleting, trimming, cooking (boiling or steaming), spice/batter application, frying, milling, bagging		Deep freezing, drying, smoking, sterilization, liquid freezing	Loose in refrigerated containers, cans, or in bags	Inhalation of wet aerosols from fish heading, degutting, boiling
						Inhalation of dry aerosols from fishmeal bagging
						Dermal contact from unprotected handling