Suchergebnisse

Food labeling is the elective tool for products traceability, identity verification and information for the final consumer. Given the complexity of commercial exchanges within the International and European seafood market, the European legislator has imposed a specific seafood traceability and labelling system currently described pursuant to (EU) Reg. No. 1379/2013. For seafood identification at purchase, the Regulation establishes the obligation to provide the consumer with the commercial and scientific name of the product and to this, each Member States shall draw up and publish a list of the commercial designations (CD) and scientific names (SN) accepted in their territory. The current Official Bulgarian list, not yet updated since its first publication in 2006, it has already been confirmed as not responding to the actual variety of fish species sold on the national territory (Tinacci et al., 2018). Thus, a nationwidemarket survey has been conducted as study model to propose a systematic review and update of the officially recognized seafood designations. 15 towns were selected according to their size and to the presence of fishery and/or aquaculture activities. The survey included a total of 71 point of sales consisting of 49 wholesale market, hypermarket and supermarkets belonging to four different great retailer chains, 11 local grocery stores and 11 local fish markets. All fish products presented on sale within each point were checked. The product type, as well as CD and SN were recorded for each product. Overall, 1610 products were recorded. As regards the category, the most part of products was fresh/frozen raw (N=1001; 62,2%) followed by canned (N=473; 29.4%). A total of 110 different CDs were used for all recorded products. 1195 products (74%) reported a CD associated with a SN while in the remaining 415 (26%) only the CD was available. The analysis highlighted the presence of a total of 50 Combination Items (CI) in which both CD and SN recorded on the market were not included in the official list; 12 CI in which a valid or obsolete SN included in the official list was associated to a CD not included in the list; 5 CI in which the officially accepted CDs were edited by adding of an adjective related to the fish origin or specific morphological features (official CDs editing); 6 CI in which the CD already existing in the official list were applied in association with a valid SN not included among the official records (extended use of the official CDs); 22 CDs recorded alone and not listed among the Official commercial designation reported in the Ministerial document. The survey confirmed the ineffectiveness of the official list in describing the products present at retail and the need to provide a substantial revision of the designation to meet the offer of an expanding market and harmonize the terms applied for products identification. In this respect, the designations collected in the survey might represent an objective starting point for the selection of new designations to be included in the Official Bulgarian list for the identification of the basket of fish species not yet officially characterized although already recognized by the final consumer

AbstractThe present study aimed at assessing the validity and accuracy of the new official Bulgarian list of seafood trade names in compliance with EU requirements, and the list evolution and adherence to the Bulgarian market trends. The new list consists of 88 commercial designations (CD) associated with 81 scientific names (SN) provided as 72 species, 8 genera and 1 family mostly belonging to the fish category (86.4%, SN = 70) . The list analysis highlighted the presence of 14 invalid SN (17.3%), with an obsolete classification. In terms of adherence to the Bulgarian market's trend the inclusion of 51 new SN reflecting fishing data in total, both from inland waters and along the Black Sea coast was pointed out. However, 44 SN relating to commercially relevant species and currently available at purchase were deleted. In terms of accuracy, the introduction of SN as family, the significant reduction of CDs and the use of vague CDs lead the list to distance itself from the one name-one fish conception, proposed at international level, as ideal approach for unambiguous product identification by the consumer. To conclude, the analysis shows a clear will of the national Bulgarian Legislator to enhance local fisheries and aquaculture trade. Nevertheless, major issues related to the SN validity and the non-adherence to seafood market trends are highlighting the ineffectiveness of the current list in describing retail seafood products. This emphasizes the urgency to provide a further substantial list revision.

Introduzione Il consumo di molluschi bivalvi (MB) crudi o poco cotti può rappresentare un rischio per la presenza di microrganismi patogeni derivanti da contaminazione fecale. La normativa comunitaria prevede che i produttori possano raccoglierli soltanto nelle zone di produzione classificate dall'autorità competente (AC) come A, B o C in relazione al livello di contaminazione fecale, con Escherichia coli come indicatore (Reg. CE n. 853/2004 e Reg. CE n. 854/2004). Per classificare le zone di produzione l'AC deve effettuare un "sanitary survey" per valutare le fonti di inquinamento e istituire un programma rappresentativo di campionamento dei MB nella zona considerata. Oltre alla valutazione di parametri biologici, chimici e fisici cogenti, l'AC può altresì valutare parametri aggiuntivi ai fini di una completa sorveglianza sanitaria. L'AC deve inoltre programmare attività di monitoraggio, generalmente a cadenza trimestrale, per verificare se il livello di rischio sia cambiato e la zona debba essere riclassificata. Il "Centro per le scienze dell'ambiente, della pesca e dell'acquacoltura" (CEFAS) ha pubblicato nel 2017 delle Linee Guida aggiornate per l'esecuzione dei sanitary surveys. Una serie di audit effettuati su undici Stati Membri nel periodo 2011-2013 dal Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) ha tuttavia evidenziato sostanziali carenze nei sistemi di riclassificazione. Nel 2011, nessuna zona di produzione era stata ancora riclassificata in Italia. La regione Liguria ha quindi intrapreso il primo sanitary survey relativo al triennio 2012-2014 per le zone di produzione di MB del golfo della Spezia. Successivamente, è stato effettuato il sanitary survey, relativo al triennio 2015-2017. Questo studio è volto ad analizzare i dati provenienti dal report "sanitary survey 2018: riclassificazione delle zone del golfo adibite alla molluschicoltura" relativo al triennio 2015-2017, elaborato dalla Struttura Igiene degli Alimenti di Origine Animale dell'ASL 5 Spezzino. Summary Consumption of raw or insufficiently cooked bivalve molluscs can result in illness due to the presence of microorganisms, notably algal biotoxins and viral contamination arising from human faecal pollution (EFSA, 2015). As established by EU legislation, gatherers may only harvest LBM from production areas with fixed locations and boundaries that the competent authority (CA) has classified as being of class A, B or C according to the level of faecal contamination and using Escherichia coli as indicator organism (Regulation CE n. 853/2004 and Regulation CE n. 854/2004). In order to classify a production area, the CA implements a sanitary survey aimed at evaluating the sources of contamination in the catchment area and establishing a sampling programme of LBM ensuring that the results of the analysis are as representative as possible for the considered area. Ongoing monitoring (generally of a three-annual basis) are also needed to determine whether the level of risk has changed, and the classification status should be therefore modified. In 2017, the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) published an updated Community guide providing principles and operational guidelines that should be applied by the CA to practically perform the sanitary survey. Despite of this legislative background, a series of audits undertaken between 2011 and 2013 by the European Commission's Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) on eleven Member States highlighted consistent gaps in the classification systems of LBM production areas. According to the official data, no re-classification procedures had been performed yet in 2011 within the entire Italian territory. Given the necessity to fulfil EU requirements, the Liguria Region implemented its first sanitary survey on the production areas of the gulf of La Spezia, which covered the three years 2012-2014 and whose results were reported in a final report published in 2015. The procedures for the sanitary survey concerning the subsequent three-year period were initiated in 2015 and the relative final report was published in 2018. The aim of this study was to analyse the data from the final report of the sanitary survey concerning the three years 2015-2017 developed by ASL 5 Spezzino and published in 2018. Materiali e Metodi Sono stati estrapolati dati relativi al numero e alla tipologia di analisi effettuate sulle specie Mytilus galloprovincialis, Crassostrea gigas e Venus verrucosa nei punti di campionamento previsti dal piano di monitoraggio e al numero e alla tipologia di non conformità (NC) riscontrate sulla base di parametri cogenti e parametri aggiuntivi di sorveglianza sanitaria. I dati sono stati confrontati con quelli del sanitary survey relativo al triennio precedente (2012-2014). Opportuni test statistici sono stati utilizzati per valutare i dati provenienti dal monitoraggio di E. coli e Norovirus. Risultati e Discussione Sono state effettuate 4306 analisi, soprattutto su M. galloprovincialis (89%) e per lo più su agenti biologici e biotossine marine. Sono state rilevate 160 NC, la maggior parte delle quali (93.7%) riferibili a positività per Norovirus in M. galloprovincialis e C. gigas, con una forte prevalenza del genogruppo GII. La prevalenza di Norovirus nel golfo della Spezia è risultata essere tra le più elevate a livello nazionale. Al contrario, nonostante alcune NC riscontrate per le biotossine marine, lo stato sanitario delle zone di produzione del golfo è risultato relativamente sicuro rispetto ad altre realtà nazionali. È stato dimostrato che i livelli di E. coli sono correlati sia con la piovosità che con la stagionalità (maggiori nel periodo più freddo). In entrambi i casi sono principalmente coinvolti i punti di campionamento interni alla diga e della Baia di Portovenere, da attribuire principalmente alla direzione delle correnti marine ed al loro rallentamento nei suddetti punti. Rispetto al confronto con il triennio precedente, è stata riconfermata la classe B per M. galloprovincialis, le zone di produzione di C. gigas sono state riclassificate A e quelle di V. verrucosa sono invece state definitivamente chiuse per le difficoltà riscontrate nel reperimento di un numero di campioni rappresentativo. Il sanitary survey si è confermato uno strumento utile nella riclassificazione e nel monitoraggio sanitario delle zone di produzione di MB.

18 pages, 4 figures. ; In this study, 111 ready-to-eat anchovy products were collected on the Italian market. The products were molecularly identified through a BLAST analysis of a highly informative cytb fragment amplified by a newly designed primer pair for the genus Engraulis spp. and the mislabelling rate was assessed. In addition, the labels were analysed in the light of the current EU law. Despite only one mislabelling case was observed (mislabelling rate 0.9%), which involved the substitution of the European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) with the low-valuable Peruvian/Chilean anchoveta (Engraulis ringens), the molecular technique developed in this study was proved as suitable tool for detecting species in processed anchovy products. It could be therefore applied to carry out more extensive EU survey aimed at evaluating the mislabelling rate of such products, still poorly covered by a targeted and clear legislation system. ; Peer reviewed

Herrings are the third most commercialized species in the European Union (EUMOFA report, 2017) and common hosts of third stage Anisakisspp. larvae. Different kind of ready to eat (RTE) herring products are available on the market. Although these products undergo technological processes able to kill viable parasites, exposure to dead larvae may cause allergic reactions. Given the scarcity of available data on anisakids in RTE herrings sold on the Italian market, the aim of this study was to assess the occurrence of Anisakisspp. larvae in various kind of such products.