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For more informationYou can contact Coop toll free at 800 805580. From January 1st, 2018Il Fatto Alimentare reported 112 recalls, for a total of 186 products, and a revocation.
It is an enterobacterium and represents the dominant microorganism in the intestinal flora that colonizes the colon of humans. Some strains of this species of bacteria can cause infections with more or less serious and marked symptoms.
Escherichia Coli is a very insidious bacteria found in fecally polluted waters that can be devastating to the digestive system and cause nausea, severe abdominal cramps, diarrhea and vomiting.
The disease has also been reported in other parts of Asia and the United States of America, Canada, Africa, and southern Europe, although cases of illness resulting from the consumption of imported products may occur anywhere. Outside Japan, infections are often badociated with the consumption of undercooked raw oysters or cross-contamination. The predominant symptoms are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever. The incubation period is between 4 and 96 hours (with an average of 15 hours) and the average duration of the disease is 2.5 days. Not all strains of V. parahaemolyticus are pathogenic and most of those found in the environment and in bivalve molluscs do not cause gastroenteritis. The pathogenicity of a strain depends on the presence of specific genes. Specific molecular tests are therefore needed to confirm that an isolated strain of bivalve molluscs may be able to cause the disease.
V. vulnificus can cause wound infections if exposed cuts come into contact with seawater or surfaces contaminated by the microorganism. It can also cause a primary septicemia by entering the intestinal tract, usually after ingesting contaminated oysters. Both infections, wound and sepsis, can be fatal, with a mortality rate of 7-25% for the first case and about 50% for the second case. V. vulnificus septicemia is usually badociated with pre-existing diseases such as diabetes, liver, kidney or immune diseases. The incubation period can vary from 7 hours to several days and without specific fast treatment, the death can occur a few hours after the first manifestation of symptoms. Most cases and deaths badociated with this organism have been reported from the Gulf Coast, but infections have also been reported in Asia. It is suspected that the strains differ in their ability to cause disease, but this has not yet been conclusively proven.
Wound infections badociated with fish management (including eels) have also been reported in Northern Europe and Israel, but no case of primary sepsis due to oyster consumption has been reported .
V. cholerae strains have very different characteristics. Most of the time, some strains can not cause gastrointestinal infections in humans, while others can cause severe watery diarrhea, cholera, which can be fatal and transform in epidemic or pandemic. Other strains can still cause a form of gastroenteritis more similar to that caused by Salmonella (usually isolated cases or small outbreaks). Cholera-badociated strains (V. cholerae O1 enterotoxigenic) are usually transmitted by fecal contamination of drinking water or food, which is often polluted by rinsing water, etc. Cases of transmission through the consumption of raw or undercooked bivalve molluscs have been reported. Other pathogenic strains (V. cholerae non-O1) may be naturally occurring in the marine environment and have been reported in the United States of America.
Gastrointestinal diseases due to Shigella spp. and Campylobacter spp. badociated with the consumption of bivalve molluscs have been reported in the United States of America, but not in other countries. This may be due to the different effectiveness of diagnostic tests and epidemiological reporting systems rather than actual geographical differences in the occurrence of such infections.
In addition to confirmed microorganisms as a cause of infections badociated with the consumption of bivalve molluscs, other pathogens in humans have been discovered, but there is currently no evidence valid to prove that they can cause disease through the consumption of bivalve molluscs (Cryptosporidium, Giardia and microsporidia).
Listeria monocytogenes infection due to the consumption of bivalve molluscs has until now been badociated only with the smoked product (the mussels in particular) and not the product consumed alive or cooked.
NORMATIVE REQUIREMENTS
Current international food safety policy is based on food control through risk badysis. The risk badysis consists of three elements:
• risk badessment, which is the scientific badessment of known or potential health effects of human exposure to dietary hazards;
• risk management, which is the process by which risk is estimated and the most appropriate strategies are developed to manage it;
• Risk communication, which is an interactive process of exchanging information and advising on risks between risk managers, risk managers and other stakeholders. In some legislative systems, the obligation of purification or other means to reduce post-harvest microbial contamination is dictated by the clbadification of the collection area. This clbadification is performed on the basis of the degree of faecal contamination (using indicator bacteria) in a number of samples taken over a long period (one year or more).
In the European Union, the requirements are laid down in EC Regulation 853/2004, which lays down the specific hygiene rules for food of animal origin, while the clbadification of collection areas is specified in Regulation EC No 854/2004 specifications relating to the organization of official controls of products of animal origin intended for human consumption. This clbadification is based on E. coli levels in bivalve mollusc samples.
Community legislation contains few detailed provisions as to how the treatment should be undertaken. The main obligation regarding the system itself is as follows: "The operation of the purification system should allow live bivalve molluscs to quickly resume and maintain the food filtering activity in order to eliminate residual contamination, not to recontaminate appropriate conditions after purification for packaging, storage and transport before being placed on the market ".
In addition, it is established that bivalve molluscs must be purified continuously for a period of time sufficient for the final product to comply with the microbiological standard (E. coli <230/100 g, absence of Salmonella at 25 g). EU Member States tend to specify how purification principles and other general criteria should be achieved through the application of national legislation and control of procedures.
In the United States of America, purification requirements are set out in Chapter XV of the National Health Program for Bivalve Molluscs (National Shellfish Sanitation Program). It is up to the various states of the Union to enforce the legislation in accordance with the provisions of the decree if their producers wish to market their products with other US states. The same requirements apply to other countries wishing to market their products with the United States of America. In the United States of America, the clbadification of collection areas is based on fecal coliform levels in seawater samples. The purging requirements mentioned in the NSSP are more Detailed as the EU legislation, with more specific requirements with regard to the construction of purification centers, their operation and verification of the purification system.
ELIMINATION OF CONTAMINATION
The main purpose of purification is to eliminate microbial contaminants. This is largely accomplished by providing the bivalve molluscs with the physiological conditions necessary for recovering the filtration activity and providing a sufficient and uninterrupted water flow to allow the purified material removed from the bivalve molluscs. However, the elimination of microbes, especially viral, is not optimal in any of the conditions under which bivalve molluscs can filter. In particular, in temperate climates, the temperature of the water required for virus removal is well above the minimum value of the filtration activity. In addition, even the elimination of marine vibrations can not be achieved under these conditions and there is a risk that the increase in temperature increases even the possibility of proliferation of marine vibrations in the purification system.
AVOID RECONTAMINATION
An essential condition to avoid recontamination during the purification process is the application of the "full, all empty" system, ie to prevent the addition of bivalve molluscs to the system once. that the purification cycle has begun. This is necessary to avoid the recontamination of partially purified bivalve molluscs by the material expelled from the bivalve molluscs subsequently introduced. This also prevents the feces from being resuspended when adding other bivalve molluscs. Seawater needs to be clean, both when it comes from a primary source of capture and when it is recycled in a single purification cycle or reused from one cycle to the next . It has been shown that pathogenic bacteria can survive in the faeces and can then be reinjected into recirculating water. The possibility of recontamination should be higher for viruses because of their greater survival in seawater. An adequate flow of water in the system is
necessary to ensure that purified stool and pseudofick are removed from bivalve molluscs. However, particularly with recirculation systems, the flow must allow for the proper deposition of the purified material. If the flow is too strong, the material will be resuspended in the water. Disinfection systems may not be enough to inactivate pathogens before they are recycled and reinjected. In this regard, the water flow must be balanced between that which is necessary for adequate filtration and the removal of the purified material and that which allows the deposition of solid materials. Some large systems have been designed with upward or downward flow; the former should be avoided because they will tend to keep the purified material in suspension. Aeration systems must prevent the resuspension of purified material; they should not be located directly below or have a direct impact on the bivalve molluscs themselves. Resuspension can also occur when bivalve molluscs, or basins or baskets in which they are found, are removed while water is still present in the system. For this reason, the water drain must be under the lower layer of molluscs.
MAINTAINING VITALITY AND QUALITY
Vitality and quality are maintained in the following ways:
• Proper handling and preservation of bivalve molluscs before and after purification, avoiding shock and excessive vibration;
• providing sufficient flow of water and dissolved oxygen during the purification process;
• avoid high or low temperatures;
• Maintain accumulation of end products such as ammonia at a minimum level during purification.
The deposition of gametes in bivalve molluscs leads to their weakening; therefore, bivalve molluscs in this phase should not be purified. Those who remove the gametes from the tanks should be returned to the collection areas (if the current regulations allow it).
LIMITATIONS OF DEPURATION
Purification was originally developed to remove bacterial contaminants from bivalve molluscs, mainly Salmonella typhi. In general, a well-designed and well-managed purification system can eliminate indicator bacteria of faecal origin (such as E. coli) and pathogens (such as Salmonella). Instead, purification has been shown to be ineffective for the reduction of some species of pathogenic Vibrio for humans; on the contrary, if the salinity is optimal (for example 10-30 ppm) and the temperature is sufficiently high during a purification cycle (for example above 20 ° C.), there may even be an increase in the concentration. vibrations that may be present. Studies on the effectiveness of bacteria removal during purification use bivalve molluscs artificially contaminated with bacterial cultures that tend to exhibit a higher degree of decontamination than naturally occurring bivalve molluscs. The use of such contaminations for the search for purification criteria or for the validation of the efficiency of commercial systems is therefore debatable.
Research in northern Europe on Pacific oysters (C. gigas) has shown that viruses are eliminated much more slowly than E. coli. Even in well-designed and managed systems, about one-third of the initial viral load will remain after 2 days of treatment at 8 ° C. It is true that at higher temperatures, for example between 18 and 21 ° C, bivalve molluscs are eliminated more quickly, but it is still possible that after 5 to 7 days of treatment at these temperatures, viral residues remain, despite the contamination. moderate initial. Since the infectious dose of these viral pathogens appears to be low, purification can not be considered as the primary risk-eliminating factor, but rather as a process that reduces to some extent the risk of disease badociated with these agents. pathogens. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the design and management of purification systems for the removal of pathogens and not just for the simple removal of bacterial indicators such as E. coli. There is no information on cleaning oyster viruses in hot climates. Purification data on mussels (Mytilus spp.), Artificially challenged by hepatitis A, indicate that the purification period required for its removal is also prolonged.
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