Ref. Use of chlorine in fish processing.
There are only a few studies on the formation of carcinogens or possible carcinogens from the exposure of fishery products to chlorine. Following is a bibliography of references I found in a literature search in 1999. At that time chlorine was used at quite high levels in poultry wash water and the bibliography cites some studies of this process. Mutagens are formed on contact of fishery products with high, greater than 100 ppm, concentrations of chlorine, but the Codex report considered there was no risk to human health on exposure up to 10 ppm. However, there is no convincing evidence - convincing to me that is; manufacturers of ozonisers might disagree - to suggest that exposure of fishery products to solutions of chlorine, or of ozone for that matter, significantly reduces overall bacterial counts or of counts of pathogens, or increases shelf lives of chill-stored products so there is no justification for exposing fishery products to sanitisers such as chlorine or ozone.
A correspondent in this discussion referred to adverse health affects of chloramine. Chloramine, the result of reacting together chlorine and ammonia, is used as a sanitiser by water authorities for sanitising potable water and as far as I am aware is considered safe for this purpose by regulatory authorities. Safe for humans that is; toxic to fish.
Peter Howgate
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Codex Alimentarius Commission, Codex Committee on Fish and Fishery Products (2000). Discussion paper on the use of chlorinated water. CX/FFP/13
Ghanbari, H.A., Wheeler, W.B. & Kirk J.R. (1981). The fate of hypochlorous acid during shrimp processing: a model system. Journal of Food Science, 47, 185-187, 197
Ghanbari, H.A., Wheeler, W.B. & Kirk J.R. (1982). Reactions of aqueous chlorine and chlorine dioxide with lipids: chlorine incorporation. Journal of Food Science, 47, 482-485.
Haddon W.F., Binder, R.G., Wong, R.Y., Harden, L.A., Wilson, R.E., Benson, M. & Stevens, K.L. (1996). Potent bacterial mutagens produced by chlorination of simulated poultry chiller water. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 44, 256-263.
Johnston, J.J., Ghanbari, H.A., Wheeler, W.B. & Kirk, J.R. (1983). Chlorine incorporation into shrimp. Journal of Food Science, 48, 668-670.
Lin, W.F., Huang, T.S., Cornell, J.A., Lin, C.M. & Wei. C. (1996 ). Bactericidal activity of aqueous chlorine and chlorine dioxide solutions in a fish model system. Journal of Food Science, 61, 1030-1034.
Owusu-Yaw, J., Toth, J.P., Wheeler, W.B. & Wei, C.I. (1990). Mutagenicity and identification of the reaction products of aqueous chlorine or chlorine dioxide with L-tryptophan. Journal of Food Science, 55, 1714-1719, 1724.
Richardson, S.D., Thruston, A.D, Caughran, T.V., Collette, T.W., Patterson, K.S. & Lykins, B.W. (1998). Chemical by-products of chlorine and alternative disinfectants. Food Technology, 52(4), 58-61.
Schade, J.E. Tsai, L-S., Tong, L., Wilson, R. & MacGregor, J.T. (1990). Extraction of mutagens from chlorinated poultry chiller water. Journal of Food Science, 55, 635-639, 657.
Sen, A.C., Owusu-Yaw, J., Wheeler, W.B. & Wei, C.I. (1989). Reactions of aqueous chlorine and chlorine dioxide with tryptophan, N-methyltryptophan, and 3-indolelactic acid: kinetic and mutagenicity studies. Journal of Food Science, 54, 1057-1060.
Tsai, L-S., Higby, R. & Schade, J. (1995). Disinfection of poultry chiller water with chlorine dioxide: consumption and byproduct formation. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 43, 2768-2773.
Tsai, L-S., Wilson, R. & Randall, V. (1997). Mutagenicity of poultry chiller water treated with either chlorine dioxide or chlorine. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 45, 2267-2272.
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