The Members of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and of the World Health Organization (WHO) have expressed concern regarding the level of safety of food both at national and international levels. Increasing foodborne disease incidence over the last decades seems, in many countries, to be related to an increase in disease caused by microorganisms in food. This concern has been voiced in meetings of the Governing Bodies of both Organizations and in the Codex Alimentarius Commission. It is not easy to decide whether the suggested increase is real or an artefact of changes in other areas, such as improved disease surveillance or better detection methods for microorganisms in foods. However, the important issue is whether...

Outbreaks of cholera have been associated with consumption of seafood including oysters, crabs and shrimp (Oliver and Kaper, 1997). In the early 1990s, a pandemic of cholera swept through South and Central America. The outbreaks seemed to begin in Peru, where there were more than 400 000 cases and 4 000 deaths (Wolfe, 1992). However, the mortality rate may have been higher but for the readily available oral electrolyte stations throughout Latin America, established as a precaution when WHO anticipated the pandemic would jump from Africa to Latin America. Although no cases of cholera were associated with the consumption of commercial seafood, the industry, including shrimp exports, were negatively affected. The outbreak in the 1990s cost Peru US$ 770 million...

The increasing globalization of food trade and the harmonization of food standards and food safety measures have led to significant changes in the international and national regulatory frameworks for food. The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) named the Codex Alimentarius as the source of international standards on food safety, which has had a profound impact on the status of Codex standards, guidelines and recommendations in international food trade, particularly among members of the WTO. In addition, there is an increasing recognition of the need to integrate and improve coordination of regulatory activities among national and international bodies to better protect human, animal and plant life and health, as well as...

The Codex Alimentarius Commission was established by FAO and WHO to develop international food standards, guidelines and recommendations to protect the health of consumers and to ensure fair practices in the food trade. This collection of food standards, entitled the Codex Alimentarius, or the food code, has become the global reference point for consumers, food producers and processors, national food control agencies and the international food trade. This code has had an enormous impact on the thinking of food producers and processors, and has enhanced awareness among end users the consumers. Its influence extends to every continent, and its contribution to the protection of public health and fair practices in the food trade is immeasurable.

This paper is intended to provide an overview of the application of some analytical techniques to ensure seafood safety and authenticity. The first part examines traditional and modern methods for the detection and typing of agents implicated in seafood-borne diseases, i.e. toxins, viruses, bacteria and parasites. Immunological analyses, molecular biology methods (such as polymerase chain reaction [PCR] and related techniques), and protein-based analyses (including proteomics) for detection and typing are discussed. The detection of strains carrier of resistance to disinfectants and some antibiotics is specially addressed. The second part deals with methods to ensure seafood authenticity, a problem which has evolved due to increasing international trade of processed and aquacultured fish of a great variety of species. Most countries have...

The Codex Alimentarius is a collection of international food standards that have been adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Codex standards cover all the main foods, whether processed, semi-processed or raw. In addition, materials used in the further processing of food products are included to the extent necessary for achieving the principal objectives of the code - protecting the health of consumers and facilitating fair practices in the food trade. Codex provisions concern the hygienic and nutritional quality of food, including microbiological norms, food additives, pesticide and veterinary drug residues, contaminants, labelling and presentation, and methods of sampling and risk analysis. As well as individual standards, advisory codes of practice, guidelines and other recommended measures form an important part of...