Evaluation of Seafood Safety Health Hazards for Traditional Fish Products: Preventive Measures and Monitoring Issues

Traditional fish products (TFPs) are usually produced by applying old preserving methods such as salting, fermenting, drying and smoking. These products also greatly varies amongst the countries as well as within the same country by using many different applications such as differences in additives, percentage of salt or vinegar and maturing temperatures. Moreover, modifications in these techniques are also known due to food safety issues and changes in customer preference of new generation. Although such processing/preserving methods have been known as old techniques for many years, they have still wide acceptance around the world because of their specific taste and aroma. Due to their specific characteristics for varying many types, they have both advantages and disadvantages relating to seafood health risks that makes them difficult to identify, establish effective preventive and/or monitoring procedures. In this paper, the most common seafood health hazards were evaluated under five main traditional fish processing methods. The preventive measures were discussed along with effective monitoring in Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) system application for specific products by reviewing current literature and regulations under this subject. Seafood safety hazards were evaluated under two sections as ‘raw material receiving and storage stage before processing including other ingredients and packaging materials’, and ‘processing and storage stage’. Although it is easy to prevent certain health hazards at the receiving stage, some of them have to be monitored from harvesting along with processing until consumption. The most common seafood health hazards, which threathens TFPs, were mainly found as histamine, parasites, Listeria monocytogenes and Clostridium botulinum, and they were discussed under each process type. In the scope of this study, preventive measures and further studies related to major health hazards are suggested under each specific TFPs.