Last week Italy notified to RASFF food poisoning caused by histamine in vacuum marinated tuna from Spain. Histamine forms when fish is not properly refrigerated before being cooked or processed. Cooking, freezing and canning will not destroy the toxin after it has formed. Tuna, sardines, mackerel and anchovies are among the species where the substance can be found most frequently. Poisoning symptoms include tingling or burning of the mouth or throat, rash. headache. diarrhea and usually start within one hour after eating.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was requested by DG SANTE to do a Rapid Outbreak Assessment following the increasing RASFF notifications on histamine intoxication and the number of human cases reported also by other countries (France, Spain, Croatia, Poland and Denmark) in the past months.

Generon can provide you a rapid detection solution of histamine in fish over a cut-off concentration and also AOAC certified ELISA kits for the precise quantification of histamine.