Fisherman Direct

Dispatch Centre

A dispatch centre is an approved place where shellfish are brought together prior to shipment to the end user. Prior to packing the animals may be held in tanks of seawater for the purposes of degritting and also, if required, purification.

A dispatch centre must be kept clean and tidy. A dispatch centre operative must retain records of where each batch of shellfish was harvested from.

Health marks are attached to each batch of shellfish that leaves the centre. These contain information detailing the country of origin, approval number of the dispatch centre, species of shellfish and date of packaging. This means that at anytime in the supply chain, shellfish can be traced right back to where it was harvested from.

Depuration centre

Molluscs from category 'A' waters can be placed on the market for human consumption without and cleansing or treatment. Molluscs from category 'B' waters which are subject to low levels of bacterial contamination must be purified for 48 hours in depuration tanks to allow the shellfish to cleanse themselves in the filtered seawater.

We regularly test samples of our shellfish for bacterial contamination to ensure that we provide our customers with a first class product.

All our shellfish are depurated (unless customer asks otherwise) to provide peace of mind to the customer that the shellfish are the cleanest around.