January 16. 2004End of January an outbreak of histamine fish poisoning occurred in Denmark. The project team of SEAFOODplus project 3.4. BIOCOM obtained samples of the implicated seafood and analyses showed the product to contain luminous bacteria.
It is interesting that luminous bacteria were found in relation to the first outbreak of histamine fish poisoning analysed by BIOCOM. In fact, the microbiology team at DIFRES has previously shown that psykrotolerant luminous and non-luminous bacteria can produce toxic concentrations of histamine at low temperatures. This information is not only interesting but also indicates a potential for BIOCOM to provide relevant new results on histamine formation in chilled seafood.
The luminous bacteria Photobacterium phosphoreum and Vibrio logei both can grow at low temperatures and have been found previously in high concentrations in various glowing seafood in Europe, Japan and the USA. Both these bacteria contribute to seafood spoilage, and glowing products should be rejected as they are, or soon become, of poor eating quality. Fortunately, luminous bacteria in seafoods are not infectious and do not cause typical food poisoning. However, Photobacterium phosphoreum produces histamine and can cause histamine fish poisoning with allergy-like symptoms. Histamine can be produced even at low temperatures, but only in certain seafoods that have a high concentration of histidine as a free amino acid in the flesh. Thus, shrimps and white-fleshed fishes cannot cause histamine fish poisoning, whereas glowing dark fleshed fishes (e.g. tuna, mackerel or saury/garfish) may contain toxic concentrations of histamine.
