Good Day Giuseppe,
As you probably know, in October 2003 few shipments of lobster were checked and one rejected in Rome on the basis of the claim, that they exceeded the allowance for lead (to be reported more than 0.5 ppm).There appears to be a lot of misinformation circulating around this incident. Mainly because of the difference between US FDA guidelines (which are higher) and EU Commission Regulation (EC) No 466/2001. Unfortunately till today, no one has been able to obtain accurate information on testing techniques and parts of lobster body used to determine if results are comparable and accurate. I've personally received at least two or three different version of this event from officials in Rome.
As you can imagine, several industry leader and universities sent samples of lobsters to be analyzed by various commercial labs in the USA. As far as I know they all came back with levels much lower than maximum levels allowed by EU. This is not a surprise to me. We have also done some research and tests from various areas within US and Canadian waters. We tested for all possible (natural and industrial) contaminants and did not find any numbers to be higher than recommended by US FDA.Overall, there is very limited amount of scientific data on that subject. We all know, that wastewater effluent (in certain areas) will contain various potentially toxic substances including chlorine and chloramines, or other halogenated hydrocarbons, ions and heavy metals. Of these only DDT's and PCB's pose a potential threat to lobsters because they bioaccumulate. The consequences of bioaccumulation these compounds are still poorly understood for lobsters. Other potentially toxic substances will apparently be present at suffi
ciently low concentrations that they should not pose a serious treat.
There is some limited data available in regards to heavy metals concentration in the American Lobster (Homarus Americanus)from several sites in Maine. You can obtain that information from University of Maine (Dr. Bayer tel 207-593-9583). I hope this will be helpful.
Best Regards
Tad Pawlowski
QC Manager-HACCP Coordinator
East Coast Seafood, Inc.
Tel: (781) 593-1737 ext.174
Fax: (781) 599-2670
e-mail: tpawlowski@myseafood.com <mailto:tpawlowski@myseafood.com>
-----Original Message-----
From: Dott. Arcangeli - IZS Adria [mailto:garcangeli@izsvenezie.it]
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 3:05 AM
To: seafood@ucdavis.edu
Subject: about american lobster
Dear members,
In Italy a lot of american bobster (Homarus americanus) are imported and
still alive sold. Despite the cooking, is possible any risk for human
health?
I think, for example, eavy metals or biotoxins.
Is there knowledge about indigenous bacteria, for example alophilic vibrio,
or another potential pathogens?
Thank you in advance!
G. Arcangeli
---------------------------------------------------
Arcangeli dr. Giuseppe
Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale
delle Venezie
via L. da Vinci, 39 - 45011 - Adria (Ro) - Italy
tel +39.0426.21841 fax +39.0426.901411
e-mail garcangeli@izsvenezie.it
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