Evaluation of Some Methods of Histamine Determination to be used in HACCP System Implementation of Sardine Canning Process

Histamine is the most important chemical hazards in fish and fishery products, where it is the main cause of histamine poisoning. The HACCP approach offers the advantage of in process control of histamine formation. This avoids the need for large scale terminal analysis of finished products which is time consuming and beyond the capabilities of many small canneries. In HACCP system, most monitoring procedures for critical control points should be done rapidly because the relation to on line processes. So, ELISA (Ridascreen R Histamine), ion exchange (Rida R Quick Histamine) and TLC techniques for histamine determination in sardine were evaluated and compared with HPLC methods as the most sensitive one (Detection limit, 1.2 ppm). Statistically, there were no significant differences between the results of TLC technique and those obtained by HPLC. In addition to histamine measurement, TLC also characterized by the possibility to analyse histamine potentiators (cadaverine, putrescine, tyramine) in 12 sardine samples at the same time on one plate. Although ELISA and ion exchange methods were characterized by simplicity and relatively low cost, its data were significantly higher than HPLC results. Receiving, sterilization and incubation period steps were established as CCPs during sardine canning. ELISA was recommended for the determination of histamine in sardine receiving step just as a screening technique. More study is required to identify an accurate and rapid technique for monitoring the histamine levels during sardine canning process. HPLC as well as TLC methods can be used in the verification step to ensure the efficiency of HACCP plan.