The stakeholder-run Aquaculture Advisory Council (AAC), which provides advice on aquaculture to the European Commission, the European Parliament, European member states, and other bodies, has sent a recommendation to the E.C. asking for the revaluation of the risk assessment of parasites in farmed fish products.
The organization’s latest advice follows publication of results from the ParaFishControl project, which ran from April 2015 to March 2020 as part of the E.U.’s Horizon 2020 program.
Surveys conducted as part of the project did not find evidence of any zoonotic (helminth) parasites in the major E.U. farmed fish species, which are gilthead sea bream, European sea bass, turbot, Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, and common carp.
“This finding allows us to conclude that the overall risk of parasite infection in the selected farmed fish species, similarly to the Atlantic salmon, is negligible,” according to the AAC’s advice to the commission.
Both the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA)’s Scientific Opinion on risk assessment of parasites in fishery products and the European Commission Regulation CE/1276/2011 consider the risk of transmission of parasites to man as negligible. However, while the data to evidence this is available for Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), it has been lacking for other species. The current EFSA opinion concluded, therefore, that there is not sufficient monitoring available so that farmed fish other than salmon are considered as not representing a health hazard in relation to the presence of parasites.
“Based on these (new) results, the AAC requests to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) to mandate the EFSA for a re-evaluation of the risk-assessment to confirm whether the risk of transmission of parasites to man by E.U. farmed fish is considered significant or negligible. If the EFSA considers the risk to be negligible, the current E.U. legislation should subsequently evolve to extend the exemption from the freezing treatment of products intended to be consumed raw or undercooked to all E.U. farmed fish products…,” the AAC recommended.
Researchers on the ParaFishControl hope that their important work will boost the confidence of fish processors, traders, and consumers in farmed fish products, by providing a certification process and accompanying documentation and publicity for the control of zoonotic (helminth) parasites in aquaculture fish products.
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