Seafood Borne Diseases.....

Seafood, like most foods, have food safety concerns that are specific to their varieties, harvesting, handling, and preparation..... 

Understanding the incidence of illness attributed to seafood can lower the chance of infection. When you are informed, understand the risks, and most important, learn how to prevent seafood-borne illness, your risk of illness will be reduced. When handled properly, finfish and shellfish are as safe to eat as any other source of protein.

For healthy individuals, the nutritional benefits of seafood far outweigh the safety concerns. People with compromised immune systems, such as those with liver disease, can also benefit from eating seafood but should follow a few precautionary measures when preparing seafood.

Seafood Safety Tips

•     Know your seafood seller

•     Purchase seafood carefully

•     Keep seafood cold

•     Keep live shellfish alive

•     Refrigerate live shellfish properly

•     Don’t cross-contaminate

•     Cook seafood thoroughly

Purchasing Strategies

•     Always purchase seafood from a dealer that maintains high quality. Know the characteristics of high-quality seafood and avoid low-quality products. For information on selecting seafood, request the fact sheet HGIC 3482, Safe Handling of Seafood.

•     Purchase raw shellfish carefully. Buy raw clams, oysters, and mussels only from reputable markets. When in doubt, ask the seafood market personnel to show you the certified shipper’s tag that accompanies “shell-on” products or check the shipper number on shucked oyster containers.

•     When you leave the seafood market, keep your seafood cold. Leaving groceries in the car on a hot day speeds spoilage and may make seafood unsafe to eat.

Storing Fresh Seafood

•     Place seafood immediately in the refrigerator when you get home from the seafood market.

•     Wrap fresh seafood in “cling wrap” or store in airtight containers. Store fresh, pasteurized, or smoked seafood products at 32 to 38 °F.

•     Refrigerate live clams, oysters, mussels, crabs, lobsters, and crayfish in well-ventilated containers. Cover the container with a damp cloth or paper towel.

•     Do not store live shellfish in airtight bags or containers. Storing live shellfish in salt water shortens their shelf life. Storing them in fresh water kills them.

•     Keep live shellfish alive. Do not cook or eat shellfish such as clams, oysters, mussels, crabs, lobsters, and crayfish that have died during storage. Live clams, oysters, and mussels have tightly closed shells, or the shells will close when tapped. Live crabs, lobsters, and crayfish move their legs. Dead shellfish spoil rapidly and develop off-flavor and off-odors.

Storing Frozen Seafood

•     Store frozen seafood products immediately in the freezer when you get home from the seafood market.

•     If packaged in moisture- and vapor-proof packages, store frozen seafood in its original package.

•     If frozen seafood is packaged in over-wrapped trays, repackage in plastic “freezer” wrap, freezer paper, or other moisture- and vapor-proof material before you store in freezer.

•     Keep frozen seafood products at 0 ºF or below until ready to use.

Thawing Frozen Seafood

•     Many frozen seafood products do not need to thaw before being cooked. Follow the processor’s directions for preparing frozen seafood.

•     Thaw frozen seafood in the refrigerator (about 18 hours per pound) or under cold running water (about one hour per pound).

•     Do not thaw frozen seafood at room temperature or under warm running water. This is an especially important food safety concern when thawing seafood that is packaged in modified air packaging (reduced oxygen/vacuum packed). When thawing frozen seafood in modified air packaging, strictly follow the manufacturer’s directions. Additionally, thawing at room temperature or under warm running water can affect quality because the thinner parts of the seafood thaw faster than thicker parts, and the outer edges may start to spoil before the center has thawed.

Handling & Preparation

•     Do not cross-contaminate! Food poisoning and spoilage bacteria can spread from live and raw seafood to cooked seafood. Handle raw and cooked seafood products separately.

•     Thoroughly wash and rinse knives, containers, and cutting boards between handling raw and cooked seafood.  Keep raw and cooked seafood from coming in contact with each other.

•     Cook fish and shellfish thoroughly. Fish is cooked when it begins to flake and reaches an internal temperature of 145 °F.

•     All raw foods contain bacteria. Handle seafood as you would any perishable food. Keep seafood properly refrigerated, cook adequately, and handle with safety in mind.
  

Raw & Lightly Marinated Seafood

Many consumers enjoy raw or lightly marinated seafood products such as sashimi, sushi, ceviche, gravlax, cold-smoked fish, tuna, and raw shellfish. Eating raw seafood (and raw meat, poultry, or dairy products) has a greater food safety risk than eating properly cooked products. Follow these tips to reduce the risk of illness:

•     Use commercially frozen fish for sashimi, sushi, ceviche, gravlax, or cold-smoked fish. Commercially frozen fish are usually held at temperatures cold enough to kill the parasites that are present in raw fish. However, since bacteria that cause illness may still be present, individuals in the high-risk groups listed above should avoid raw seafood of any kind.

•     Be certain clams, oysters, and mussels come from certified shellfish-growing waters.

•     Refrigerate until use.