Scientific and technical assistance on the evaluation of the temperature to be applied to pre‐packed fishery products at retail level

Abstract

Relevant hazards associated with pre-packed fresh fishery products were identified through a literature search. The main temperature-dependent hazards identified are histamine formation, Listeria monocytogenes, Clostridium botulinum, and Yersinia enterocolitica. To assess bacterial growth and histamine production during storage and transport at retail level and to evaluate different storage scenarios, published predictive microbiology growth models were used assuming favourable growth conditions. Compliance with the legislative temperature requirement can only be assessed by translating the requirement into an objective measure, which, in this instance, is assumed to be 0 °C. Any assessment of temperature and its effect on histamine production or bacterial growth can be meaningful only in the context of a time period. The modelling results showed that packaged fresh fishery products can be stored at refrigeration temperatures above 0 °C (e.g. 3-5 °C) and be compliant with the current EU and international rules. For histamine, the modelling results showed that, for a fishery product with certain characteristics subject to the current temperature requirement, histamine formation would be 100 ppm (lower limit m of the safety criterion in EU Regulation (EC) No 2073/2005) at the end of its shelf-life. Thus, an equivalent condition to the above baseline scenario is any combination of storage temperature, shelf-life and CO 2 concentration in the package that leads to histamine formation of 100 ppm at the end of shelf-life. For example, for a retail temperature of 3 °C, 100 ppm would be reached under the following conditions: (1) shelf-life of 6 days and 0 % CO 2 in the packaging headspace, (2) shelf-life of 7 days and 20 % CO 2 in the packaging headspace or (3) shelf-life of 8 days and 40 % CO 2 in the packaging headspace. Similar estimates are provided for the other hazards identified.

Aerosol-jet-printed graphene electrochemical histamine sensors for food safety monitoring

“…Similarly, Gumpu et al [84] reported an enzymatic electrochemical histamine biosensor consisting of a glassy carbon electrode modified with polyaniline and ceria nanoparticles and showed a linear sensing range of 50-117 ppm. In contrast, the sensing range presented by the AJP graphenebased biosensor in fish broth confirmed its capacity for efficient detection of histamine that is compliant with FDA recommended levels (50 ppm) and EFSA (100 ppm) [85,86] with an overall response time of 33 min (including incubation of electrode with the sample) and negligible interference from turbid biological sample conditions. According to the FDA, since there is a large variability of histamine distribution throughout fish, it is possible to find 50 ppm in certain tissues, while other parts of the same fish may present 500 ppm or more [85,87].…”

Biosensing the Histamine Producing Potential of Bacteria in Tuna

“…The inoculated samples that were stored at 10°C accumulated histamine reaching concentrations above the legal limit in 3 days and levels higher than 400 mg/kg in 1 week. The number of HPB could be estimated by measurement of their decarboxylase activity in HD broth, but the species that are psychrotolerant, such as M. psychrotolerans and P. phosphoreum , have different growth rates at the temperatures that are used for the storage of fish (i.e., −1 to 4°C) and at the temperatures that are normally used to measure their histamine-producing ability (i.e., 10 to 25°C) (Morii and Kasama, 2004; Emborg and Dalgaard, 2008; European Food Safety Authority [EFSA], 2015). For example, at 15°C the growth rates of M. morganii (mesophilic) and M. psychrotolerans are similar and 15°C is also the optimal growth temperature for P. phosphoreum (Budsberg et al, 2003).…”

Geographic Pattern of Sushi Product Misdescription in Italy—A Crosstalk between Citizen Science and DNA Barcoding

“…The food safety of sushi and sashimi and the health of consumers are currently of high concern given that the consumption of these products is now globally widespread [11,12]. As a result, the most important food safety agencies in the world, such as the European Food Safety Authority [13], the Food and Drug Administration [14], the Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department's and the World Health Organization, have implemented regulations and guidelines to face all issue related to the consumption of raw fish and seafood. In this context, another important issue that Foods 2021, 10, 756 2 of 13 has attracted the interest of researchers is the molecular authentication of fish and seafood species in transformed products, because the processing procedure generally removes the specific diagnostic morphological traits useful to assign the product to a particular species through only morphological inspection.…”