Investigation and prevention of insect contamination of a high-value marine plant product

通过在水箱中进行大规模的户外生产，Acadian海洋植物有限公司(ASL)是世界上最大的海藻海藻的独立制造商，这种海藻是一种珍贵的食品，在国际市场上的售价为每公斤50-100美元。国际市场，主要是日本的买家，要求非常高的质量，对昆虫和昆虫碎片的耐受性很低，基本上需要100%的纯海藻成分。ASL目前在存放和种植卷心莲的室外水箱中受到昆虫的低水平污染。采摘后采取了大量的质量控制措施来解决这个问题，但昆虫和昆虫部分的低水平继续存在于畅销的卷心莲产品中。因此，ASL需要在收获前减少进入室外生产罐的部分数量，但对这一问题没有足够的了解，无法制定干预措施。这项拟议的研究将调查影响一种高价值海洋植物产品中昆虫存在的收获前因素。这项研究将解决ASL确定的四个问题：(1)哪些昆虫种群对产品质量构成最大威胁？(2)什么空间或管理因素最能解释昆虫的发生？(3)什么时间变化与有害产品中的昆虫发生有关？(4)改进的水箱设计或围栏能否在减少昆虫污染方面提供范围？我们希望通过一项为期一季的全面调查(1-3)和昆虫飞行习性的生态研究(4)，分别量化解释收获产品中昆虫存在的因素，并提出潜在的解决方案来限制昆虫污染。ASL相信，这项拟议的研究将通过提供收获前管理实践的信息，为优化产品质量提供洞察力和方向。

Through large-scale outdoor production in tanks, Acadian Seaplants Limited (ASL) is the worlds largestindependent manufacturer of the seaweed Chondrus crispus, a prized food product that sells for $50-100/kg ininternational markets. International markets, mainly buyers in Japan, demand exceptionally high quality, andhave low tolerance for insects and insect fragments, essentially requiring 100% pure seaweed ingredients. ASLcurrently experiences low-level contamination from insects of its outdoor tanks that hold and grow C. crispus.Numerous post-harvest quality control measures are used to address this problem, but low levels of insects andinsect parts continue to persist in the salable C. crispus product. ASL therefore needs to reduce the quantity ofinsects entering outdoor production tanks prior to harvest, but does not have adequate understanding of theproblem to enact interventions. The proposed research will investigate pre-harvest factors influencing insectpresence in a high-value marine plant product. The research will address four questions identified by ASL: (1)What insect groups pose the largest threat to product quality?; (2) What spatial or management factors moststrongly explain insect incidence?; (3) What temporal variation is associated with insect incidence in harvestedproduct?; and (4) Can modified tank design or fencing offer scope in reducing insect contamination?Through a comprehensive season-long survey (1-3), and an ecological study of insect flight habits (4), we hopeto, respectively, quantify the factors which explain the presence of insects in harvested product, and proposepotential solutions to limit it. ASL believes this proposed research will provide insight and direction foroptimizing product quality, via informing pre-harvest management practices.