Seafood Toxins: Testing is Key to Preventing Food Safety Threats

Seafood products present unique food safety concerns beyond the usual pathogens and other risks—the marine environment from which they are harvested creates conditions that can threaten consumer health in different ways from the most common forms of food poisoning. Shellfish can be contaminated with a number of marine biotoxins, and certain species of fish are prone to building up damaging levels of histamine toxin in their systems as they decompose. Proper sanitation and traditional kill-steps cannot prevent these food safety threats, so testing becomes the key way for producers to protect consumer health.

Seafood Toxins

The principal way for shellfish producers to safeguard consumers from the damaging effects of shellfish toxins, and to meet regulatory limits for those toxins, is a stringent testing program. Shellfish toxins are heat stable, meaning there is no cooking kill-step to eliminate them in food. They are also invisible to the naked eye, making scientific testing the only way to identify their presence.

Shellfish toxins are produced naturally by marine micro-algae, and they reach problematic numbers only when large algal blooms form in the water. Bivalve shellfish such as mussels and oysters are filter feeders, feeding on small particles in the water including toxin-containing micro-algae. The toxins from the algae can bioaccumulate to levels that can harm any organism that consumes the shellfish, including humans; the toxins do not harm the shellfish themselves, however.

“Because these blooms tend to form in warmer waters, shellfish producers often ramp up their testing in summer months,” says Neogen’s Kevin Mullholland. “However, in the face of gradually warming ocean temperatures, blooms have been popping up more frequently during the rest of the year in traditionally cooler waters around the globe. Experts have noted the possibility of more frequent algal bloom events in the future, requiring toxin testing more often across a wider area.”

Well-known Types of Poisoning

Amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP). This condition is caused by domoic acid, which is produced by Pseudo-nitzschia spp. diatoms (a type of microscopic algae). Razor clams are most commonly associated with ASP, but mussels, crabs, and oysters can also be contaminated with domoic acid. In addition to nausea, vomiting, cramps, and diarrhea, ASP can cause neurological symptoms: confusion, dizziness, headaches, seizures, cardiac arrhythmia, and short-term memory loss that can become permanent. Initial symptoms usually occur within a day, and neurological symptoms take closer to 48 hours. Severe cases can lead to death.

Diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP). Okadaic acid produced by the dinoflagellate Dinophysis causes DSP. The symptoms of DSP are generally more mild than other forms of shellfish poisoning, and include abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

Neurotoxin shellfish poisoning (NSP). Breve-toxins or their analogs cause NSP, which can trigger nausea, vomiting, and slurred speech when consumed.

Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). An unusually high mortality rate is associated with PSP. The condition is caused by any of about 20 toxins derived from the neurotoxin saxitoxin. It is most often associated with molluscan shellfish, gastropods like moon snails, and crabs that feed on other shellfish. It takes usually under two hours for symptoms to appear in an infected person. Symptoms include tingling mouth, fingers, and toes, followed by a loss of motor control in the arms and legs. If enough toxin is consumed, a person might experience difficulty breathing or even paralysis of respiratory and chest muscles, causing suffocation. For these reasons, PSP can quickly become deadly.

“The issue producers face, then, is finding a consistent, accurate, and easy-to-use method for testing their shellfish for the toxins that produce these conditions,” says Neogen’s Brooke Roman. “Testing methods can be qualitative, meaning they simply screen for the presence of any given toxin, or they can be quantitative, meaning they provide a precise value that can be used to determine where a product’s toxin level is at relative to regulatory limits.”

Toxin Testing Methods

There are multiple ways to test for shellfish toxins, and the method a producer uses depends on their capabilities and needs.