Shellfish food poisoning caused

In the U.S., fish and shellfish caused at least one in six food poisoning outbreaks with known etiologies, and 15% of the deaths associated with these outbreaks during 1988 to 1992. This is a marked increase over the preceding decade, when seafood consumption was associated with 10% of foodborne disease outbreaks that had identified etiologies (Ahmed, 1992 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1996 Lipp and Rose, 1997). 

Also, the reference standard made possible the reporting of the poison content of shellfish as pg per 100 grams of meats and established a basis for an official AOAC mouse assay for the poison (12.13). The Food and Drug Administration set a top limit of 80 micrograms of poison per 100 grams of shellfish meats as marketable for human consumption. This limit is well below the 1 to 4 mg deemed necessary in foods to cause sickness and death of humans. 

Azaspiracids [azaspiracid-1 (18)] are another class of highly unusual polyketide polyethers originally isolated from Irish mussels that caused azaspiracid shellfish poisoning (5). They are produced by the dinoflagellate Protoperidinium crassipes. A similar class of polyether toxins named pinnatoxins [pinnatoxin A (19)] were reported from the bivalve Pinna pectinata a closely related species P. attenuata is known to cause food poisoning in China. Pinnatoxins are likely of dinoflagellate origin and activate Ca channels (15). 

Shellfish are also a common source of food poisoning frequently caused by... 

This nonsystematic approach to monitoring has proven inadequate for protecting the U.S. food supply. In response, the FDA enacted the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) program of 1997 (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 1995, 2001). In the U.S., the FDA has established action levels in suspect seafood for the toxins causing some of the shellfish poisonings (see Table 7.3). When an action level is reached, the HACCP plan must be followed to prevent unsafe product from reaching consumers. 

Zinc is the second most important of the essential trace elements for humans. It is a constituent of some enzymes, such as carbonic anhydrase. Zinc is sufficiently abundant that deficiencies of zinc are unknown. The highest levels of zinc are found in shellfish, which may contain 400 ppm. The level of zinc in cereal grains is 30 to 40 ppm. When acid foods such as fruit juices are stored in galvanized containers, sufficient zinc may be dissolved to cause zinc poisoning. The zinc in meat is tightly bound to the myofibrils and has been speculated to influence meat s water-binding capacity (Hamm 1972). 

Phycotoxins, also named shellfish toxins, are produced by free-living micro-algae upon which the shellfish feed. The toxins are concentrated in the shellfish, which act as a vector transferring the toxic compounds to the food chain. Control of the presence of these toxins in food is required as they can cause neurotoxic, diarrhetic, paralytic, or amnesic poisoning. LC methods with fluorescence detection are now available for the determination of some of these compounds, such as domoic acid, saxitoxins, okadaic acid, and ciguatoxins. Also, an enzyme inhibition assay has been described for the determination of okadaic acid in mussels using fluorescent endpoint detection. 

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