JOINT FAO/WHOEXPERT MEETING ON THEPublic Health Risks of Histamine and other Biogenic Amines from Fish and Fishery Products

摘要

Scombrotoxin fish poisoning(SFP), often called "histamine poisoning",is caused by ingestion of certain species of marine fish with high levels of histamine and possibly other biogenic amines. In some parts of the world, SFP is a major cause of food-borne illness. The fish species involved contain high levels of free histidine in their tissue and include tuna and other pelagic species like mackerel, sardines, and anchovy. When these species are subjected to temperature abuse during and/or after harvest, bacterial decarboxylation of histidine leads to histamine formation.Other biogenic amines produced as a result of bacterial growth in fish may potentiate histamine's effect.Codex Alimentarius through its standards and guidelines aims to provide countries with tools to manage food safety issues such as histamine in fish. Together with guidance on good practices, different histamine limits have been established by Codex as indicators of decomposition and as indicators of hygiene and handling. However, many of these limits were established in a pre-risk assessment era and their scientific basis is unclear. As food safety management moves towards more risk- and evidence- basedapproaches, there is a need to review existing limits to ensure that they are scientifically based and take into account all the available evidence. At the request of Codex, FAO and WHO convened an expert meeting at the FAO headquarters in Rome from 23- 27 July 2012 to address the public health risks of histamine and other biogenic amines from fish and fishery products. This report summarises the outcome of that meeting.