Vet Med - Czech, 2010, 55(5):233-241 | DOI: 10.17221/2997-VETMED

Microbiological quality of marketed fresh and frozen seafood caught off the Adriatic coast of Croatia

N. Topic Popovic1, A. Benussi Skukan2, P. Dzidara2, R. Coz-Rakovac1, I. Strunjak-Perovic1, L. Kozacinski3, M. Jadan1, D. Brlek-Gorski4
1 Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Laboratory for Ichtyopathology-Biological Materials, Zagreb, Croatia
2 Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
3 Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
4 Croatian National Institute of Public Health, Zagreb, Croatia

Fresh and frozen seafood products (fish, shellfish, crustaceans, molluscs) in wide use in Croatia and typical of the Mediterranean diet, were examined for the presence of microbiological contamination through the winter and summer seasons. Total bacterial counts of aerobic mesophilic bacteria (AB), aerobic psychrophilic bacteria (AP), Salmonella spp., Enterobacteriaceae, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, sulphite-reducing clostridia (SRC), Listeria monocytogenes, Vibrio cholerae and V. parahaemolyticus were measured. The microbiological quality of individual samples varied widely between animal species and also between winter/summer seasons regarding total counts of aerobic mesophilic and psychrophilic bacteria. The poorest quality was for (both summer and winter) fish samples, where 66.6 % of fresh and frozen fish were found unacceptable by Croatian standards. The overall prevalence of V. parahaemolyticus was 5%. Its recovery rate was higher in fresh/frozen shellfish in both seasons than in other specimens or other storage/season conditions. Fresh crustaceans sampled in winter demonstrated significantly higher aerobic mesophilic counts than frozen ones. Unacceptable Enterobacteriaceae levels were obtained in 40% of the fresh fish summer samples. The results of this survey constitute an indicator of bacteriological contamination of a variety of seafood. The findings could serve as a basis for future testing of seafood, and possibly as a template for developing a regional/Mediterranean testing scheme on the microbial contamination of seafood in order to establish data with comparative epidemiological and statistical values.

Keywords: enterobacteria; vibrios; microbiological contamination

Published: May 31, 2010  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Topic Popovic N, Benussi Skukan A, Dzidara P, Coz-Rakovac R, Strunjak-Perovic I, Kozacinski L, et al.. Microbiological quality of marketed fresh and frozen seafood caught off the Adriatic coast of Croatia. Vet Med-Czech. 2010;55(5):233-241. doi: 10.17221/2997-VETMED.
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Baffone W, Pianetti A, Bruscolini F, Barbieri D, Citterio B (2000): Occurrence and expression of virulencerelated properties of Vibrio species isolated from widely consumed seafood products. International Journal of Food Microbiology 54, 9-18. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    2. Busani L, Cigliano A, Taioli E, Caliguiuri V, Chiavacci L, Di Bella C, Battisti A, Duranti A, Gianfranceschi M, Nardella MC, Ricci A, Rolesu S, Tamba M, Marabelli R, Cprioli A (2005): Prevalence of Salmonella enterica and Listeria monocytogenes contamination in foods of animal origin in Italy. Journal of Food Protection 68, 1729-1733. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    3. Chouliara I, Savvaidis IN, Panagiotakis N, Kontominas MG (2004): Preservation of salted, vacuum-packaged, refrigerated sea bream (Sparus aurata) fillets by irradiation: microbiological, chemical and sensory attributes. Food Microbiology 21, 351-359. Go to original source...
    4. Croatian Chamber of Economy (2004): Croatian Fishery. Croatian Chamber of Economy, Zagreb, Croatia. 28 pp.
    5. Croatian Chamber of Economy (2009): Croatian Fishery and Fish Processing. Croatian Chamber of Economy, Zagreb, Croatia. 6 pp. Available at: http://www2.hgk.hr/en/depts/agriculture/ribarstvo_2009.pdf
    6. DePaola A, Kaysner CA, Bowers J, Cook DW (2000): Environmental investigations of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in oysters after outbreaks in Washington, Texas, and New York (1997 and 1998). Applied and Environmental Microbiology 66, 4649-4654. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    7. Falcao JP, Dias AMG, Correa EF, Falcao DP (2002): Microbiological quality of ice used to refrigerate foods. Food Microbiology 19, 269-276. Go to original source...
    8. Farmer III JJ, Janda M, Birkhead K (2003): Vibrio. In: Murray PR, Baron EJ, Jorgensen JH, Pfaller MA, Yolken RH (eds.): Manual of Clinical Microbiology. 8th ed. ASM Press, Washinghton, DC. 706-718.
    9. Feldhusen F (2000): The role of seafood in bacterial foodborne diseases. Microbes and Infection 2, 1651-1660. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    10. Jaksic S, Zivkovic J, Uhitil S, Matisic K. (1990): Isolation of Vibrio vulnificus in sea fish and bivalve molluscs. Veterinary Archive 60, 9-13.
    11. Jaksic S, Uhitil S, Petrak T, Bazulic D, Gumhalter Karolyi L (2002): Occurrence of Vibrio spp. in sea fish, shrimps and bivalve molluscs harvested from Adriatic Sea Food Control 13, 491-493. Go to original source...
    12. Kaysner CA, DePaola A (2000): Outbreaks of Vibrio parahaemolyticus gastroenteritis from raw oyster consumption: assessing the risk of consumption and genetic methods for detection of pathogenic strains. Journal of Shellfish Research 19, 657-660.
    13. Lhafi SK, Kuhne M (2007): Occurrence of Vibrio spp. in blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) from the German Wadden Sea. International Journal of Food Microbiology 116, 297-300. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    14. Mulic R, Giljanovic S, Ropac D, Katalinic V (2004): Some epidemiologic characteristics of foodborne intoxications in Croatia during the 1992-2001 period. Acta Medica Croatica 58, 421-427. Go to PubMed...
    15. Normanno G, Parisi A, Addante N, Quaglia NC, Dambrosio A, Montagna C, Chiocco D (2006): Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio vulnificus and microorganisms of fecal origin in mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) sold in the Puglia region (Italy). International Journal of Food Microbiology 106, 219-222. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    16. Parveen S, Hettiarachchi KA, Bowers JC, Jones JL, Tamplin ML, McKay R, Beatty W, Brohawn K, DaSilva L, DePaola A (2008): International Journal of Food Microbiology128, 354-361. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    17. Reilly A (2006): Managing Microbiological Risk in the Fish Processing Chain. In: FAO-EUROFISH Workshop on Seafood Safety, Copenhagen, 13-15 December 2006.
    18. Su YC, Liu C (2007): Vibrio parahaemolyticus: A concern of seafood safety. Food Microbiology 24, 549-558. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    19. Vaz-Pires P, Seixas P, Mota M, Lapa-Guimaraes J, Pickova J, Lindo A, Silva T (2008): Sensory, microbiological, physical and chemical properties of cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) and broadtail shortfin squid (Illex coindetii) stored in ice. Food Science and Technology 41, 1655-1664. Go to original source...
    20. Zambuchini B, Fiorini D, Verdenelli MC, Orpianesi C, Ballini R (2008): Inhibition of microbiological activity during sole (Solea solea L.) chilled storage by applying ellagic and ascorbic acids. Food Science and Technology 41, 1733-1738. Go to original source...

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY NC 4.0), which permits non-comercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content