Sensory Quality and Histamine Formation during Controlled Decomposition of Tuna (Thunnus thynnus)

Abstract

Histamine production was studied during controlled tunafish decomposition at 0, 8, and 20°C. The influence of the location of the anatomic section on the amount of histamine formed and the incidence of histidine decarboxylating bacteria were also considered. By the time of sensory rejection, histamine levels in tunafish sections stored at 0 and 20°C were still below the hazard levels and the allowable levels established by both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Union. Toxic amounts were only formed after the tunafish was considered organoleptically unsuitable for human consumption. However, at 8°C, levels of histamine between 100 and 200 mg/l00 g of fish were found before tuna reached the rejection point. Hence, physical appearance was not a good criterion for estimating the shelf life and especially the histamine-related health hazard when tuna was stored at 8°C, a common temperature in many home refrigerators.

Histamine formation and microbiological changes in endemic Chalcalburnus tarichi Pallas 1811 (Inci Kefali) stored at 4 °C

“…Enterobacteriaceae increased from 2.0 x 10 2 on the 1st day to 6.5 x 10 9 cfu/g and that of Pseudomonas from 3.0 x 10 2 to 7.3 x 10 9 cfu/g by the 15 th day. These results are comparable to those reported for tuna by Lopez-Sabater et al (1995).…”

Cloning and Sequencing of the Histidine Decarboxylase Genes of Gram-Negative, Histamine-Producing Bacteria and Their Application in Detection and Identification of These Organisms in Fish

“…Although standards or guidelines for permissible concentrations of histamine in fish products have not been established in Japan, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sets the limit at 5 mg of histamine/100 g of muscle for scombroid fish (13). While many diverse analytical procedures have been published for histamine in unprocessed and canned fish (34), many studies (26,27,39) have shown that detectable amounts of histamine accumulated only after fish were completely decomposed or after aerobic plate counts reached Ͼ10 7 CFU/g in fish muscle. This was also confirmed in our study (Fig.…”

“…While histamine in fermented products, such as wine (36), cheese (35,59), and fish sauce (31,57), is produced by gram-positive lactic acid bacteria, histamine in raw fish products is caused mostly by gram-negative enteric bacteria such as Morganella morganii, Klebsiella spp., and Enterobacter spp. (16,28,37,39). During the decomposition of fish such as tuna and mackerel, histamine forms in significant amounts due to bacterial decarboxylation of histidine present in the muscle tissue (69).…”

“…Efforts to isolate histamine-producing bacteria have been hampered by the lack of a reliable and reproducible method. Niven's medium (48) has been most widely used, although high rates of false positives and false negatives are observed, presumably due to the presence of competing bacteria (12,25,39). Several improved screening methods have been described (4,22,41,45).…”

Influence of physical damage and freezing on histamine concentration and microbiological quality of yellowfin tuna during processing

“…Colonies showing a purple halo with different morphological characteristics (form, elevation, color and halo intensity) were selected and inoculated into modified TSAH (tryptose-soycasein agar) medium supplemented with 0.1% of L-histidine at pH 7.0, in accordance with López-Sabater et al (1996a) and Du et al (2002).…”