Fish Hazards and Controls: More Than a Fish Story

When you buy that salmon steak for Sunday night's barbecue or shrimp for a new scampi dish, it's unlikely that you reach for the Food and Drug Administration’s Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance.

But this document—popularly known as the Hazards Guide—plays a key role in keeping American consumers safe from contaminated seafood, according to the FDA's website.

The document is a guide for commercial fishermen and processors to ensure that consumers don’t become ill from parasites, pathogens (bacteria, viruses, fungi), or natural toxins (poisonous substances produced by living organisms) in the seafood they eat, the FDA says.

In April 2011, it released the fourth edition of the Hazards Guide and posted on the FDA website an introductory video to the guide for the seafood industry.

Living in South Orange County, we have access to a lot of fresh-fish options, whether it's catching your own at or purchasing it fresh from  The Hazards Guide, though used by the industry, has some useful information for consumers.

Science Supports Safety

The Hazards Guide gives fishermen and seafood processors the latest scientific information on contaminants that can be present in their products and where they need controls to eliminate them.

Among the things the industry watches for is scombrotoxin, one of the most common causes of fish-related food poisoning in the U.S.

A primary component of scombrotoxin is histamine, which is formed by certain bacteria that naturally exist on the gills and inside live, saltwater fish. The histamine-forming bacteria continue to grow on dead fish, the FDA says.

Robert Samuels, a consumer safety officer in FDA’s division of seafood safety, says that "once a fish dies, it is vulnerable to a bacterial onslaught. When you consume certain species of fish, such as tuna and mahi-mahi, that have not been chilled properly, you could consume an overwhelming amount of histamine and your body may react violently.”

Symptoms of scombrotoxin poisoning can include tingling or burning around the mouth, itchy skin, a rash or hives, a drop in blood pressure, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, heart palpitations and difficulty breathing.

How the fish are handled on the fishing boat affects the formation of histamine, says Samuels. “Natural marine flora (like the bacteria that produce histamine) have the best opportunity to go to town on the fish before they get hit with ice on the boats or face other inhibitory or destructive treatments at a processing plant.”

Seafood Consumption

Fish is a big part of the American diet. Americans consumed 15.8 pounds of fish per person in 2009, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service. And U.S. consumers spent an estimated $75.5 billion for seafood in 2009.

Imports made up 84 percent of the seafood eaten in the U.S. in 2009, according to the fisheries service.