The European Commission asked EFSA to deliver the report providing scientific and technical assistance on appropriate temperatures to be applied to pre-packed fishery products at retail level.
The current 2004 EU rules for transport or storage conditions of fishery products do not define a specific temperature to be respected but refer to ‘temperature approaching that of melting ice’.
This is generally interpreted as meaning that products must be touching ice and establishing compliance is therefore tricky.
Food poisoning
EFSA scientists scrutinised scientific literature to assess the effects of temperature on the main food poisoning culprits present in such fresh fish: histamine formation, Listeria monocytogenes, Clostridium botulinum and Yersinia enterocolitica.
“The results from the modelling showed that pre-packed fresh fishery products can be stored at refrigeration temperatures above 0 °C (e.g. 3–5 °C) and be compliant with the current EU and international rules,” the researchers concluded.
Specifically, in the case of histamine formation, a fishery product at the end of its shelf-life would contain histamine levels of no more than 100 parts per million.
To ensure this, fish stored at 3oC would either have a six-day shelf-life and 0% CO2 within its packaging; a seven-day shelf-life and 20% CO2 in the packaging; or an eight-day shelf-life and 40% CO2 in the packaging, the scientists observed.
Listeria monocytogenes
In the case of Listeria monocytogenes, EU regulations set a limit of 100 colony-forming units in ready-to-eat products. Predictive models showed that, for a retail temperature of 3 °C, this limit would be respected with an 11-day shelf-life and 0% CO2 in the packaging; a 14-day shelf-life and 20% CO2 , or an 18-day shelf-life and 40% CO2 .
Finally, for Yersinia enterocolitica, modelling showed that fishery products should either have a shelf-life of 10 days at 2°C; a shelf-life of seven days at 4°C, or a shelf-life of five days at 6°C.
The EFSA researchers recommended that definite temperature markers should be used for products, rather than the phrase ‘temperature approaching that of melting ice’.
Source: EFSA Journal 2015;13(7):4162 [48 pp.].
Published: July 1, doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2015.4162
Scientific and technical assistance on the evaluation of the temperature to be applied to pre-packed fishery products at retail level
Authors: Declan Bolton, Kostas Koutsoumanis and Micheál O’Mahony, members of the EFSA working group on the evaluation of the temperature to be applied to pre-packed fishery products at retail level.