6 maggio 2008

Prawns from Asia contaminated with AOZ and SEM

Although Nitrofurans are included in the list of banned substances, their metabolites have been found to be present in fish products on the market, or heading for different countries in the European Community. In fact in the past few weeks...

...the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) gave an alert of different cases of fish products which were found to be contaminated during checks by the competent authority. AOZ was found in shrimp from China (15.2 ppb) already on the German market and in whole Black Tiger prawns coming from India checked in Norway (3 ppb) and already on the market in the United Kingdom (5 ppb). SEM was present in cooked shrimps from China checked in Spain (1.9 ppb), in shrimp from fresh water from Thailand checked in Belgium (11 and 15 ppb),and in shrimp from fresh water and in whole black Tiger prawns from India already distributed in the United Kingdom market (1.3 ppb). Nitrofurans are used for prophylaxis, in treatment of bacterial infections and against protozoa in cattle, swine and in aquaculture. These substances are banned and the minimum required performance limit is 1 ppb (EU Decision 2003/181/CE of March 13, 2003).

Tecna has developed a new ELISA kit for the determination of AOZ that will shortly be available.