Hi everyone,
I wonder if my mail will get through since we are having a connection problem at our university thesedays.
I enjoyed this week's histamine discussion and have been enjoying the other discussions in this listserver since I joined in. I am a bit shy contributer and always hesitate to join into discussions. However, I felt an obligation to give few comments on the subject since I have done a bit of research on histamine in the past mainly on fish meal. Thesedays, I am running a project on histamine analytical methods.
I have attached a copy of my three published papers on histamine levels and analyses on different products. I hope it will be beneficial to some people.
I have not finished reading all the mails on histamine discussion and sorry if I made an unfair comment on one subject.
My points to discussion are;
1. I disagree to analyse histamine in fish viscera for the quality control since each part of fish may contain different levels of histamine due to differences in the levels of histidine and bacterial
load. One of my study (see file-histamine in fish meal) showed that histamine level was higher in guts of mackerel compare to its fillet. I actualy separated fish offal from fillets and processed into fish meal in laboratory conditions. The results were different.
2. Each species fish may have histamine formation at different levels at different temperature conditions depending on the bacterial levels as well as the amount of histidine level. Therefore, storage trial studies have been carried out at different conditions with different species.
3. One of my study on anchovies showed that even at a low temperature, we can have high level of histamine formation. This result surprised one of FDA member at a PFT meeting.
4. It should be noted that histamine will break down to other componets (probably microorganisms do it) and you will first get histamine levels increasing during the time, then a fall in the level will occur. I found it with fish meal that stored at high humidity and high temperature. I was informed by other scientists that they also got it with other products. Therefore, quality inspectors should note that although a product is spoilt, you might not get high histamine levels
there. (Well ofcourse I am talking about the ones that previously contain histidine).
5. My last point is to the both goverment inspectors as well as seafood companies. Why not trying to test each ELISA methods for their suitability for the required analyses? For quick histamine check, ELISA secreening test kits would be perfect if they are tested by several laboratories and approved by goverment officials. Those kits can be easily used by the buyers as well as inspectors for their quick
tests. Quantitative methods are also great but requires a proper laboratory. However, they have advantage of testing so many samples at a time and are quicker. They can be run by a trained technician
easily compare to HPLC methods.
I have done my PhD in England and part of my PhD thesis was on application of Elisa method on histamine (carried out at Institute of Food Research in Norwich in 1992, worked with Dr. Mike Morgan) but in those days the methodology was not developed enough. I didn't finish that part of the work due to my time limitation of scholarship but later on I learned that so many methods on histamine analyses were commercialized. I know that each product can effect the sensitivity of ELISA method, therefore it needs to be tested. I have already applied a project from my university to test the suitability of commercial test kits on certain products in comparison with HPLC and colorimetric method. However, I only got 7 000 dollars support for the project and the test kits are very expensive. Therefore, support from commercial companies or other sources will be appreciated. I would also be pleased to collaborate with other scientists at different companies and laboratories.
Best regards,
Dr. Sevim KOSE
Karadeniz (Black Sea) Technical University,
Faculty of Marine Sciences, 61530 Camburnu,
Trabzon, TURKEY
Tel. 00904627522805 (ext. 120)
Fax. 00904627522158
Email. sevimkose@yahoo.com
sevimk@ktu.edu.tr
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