Joint FAO/WHO expert meeting on the public health risks of histamine and other biogenic amines from fish and fishery products: meeting report

Overview

Scombrotoxin fish poisoning (SFP) (often called “histamine poisoning”) is caused by ingestion of certain species of marine fish that contain high levels of histamine and possibly other biogenic amines. Codex Alimentarius through its standards and guidelines aims to provide countries with a basis on which to manage issues such as histamine formation. Several of the existing standards include maximum levels for histamine in different fish and fishery products. The need to harmonize such limits and produce the associated guidance on the relevant sampling plans and other aspects of sampling resulted in the 31st Session of the Codex Committee on Fish and Fishery Products (CCFFP), which agreed to look into the issue of histamine limits in more detail.

The Committee established an electronic Working Group in order to facilitate this work and identified the need for scientific advice from FAO and WHO to support this work. FAO and WHO convened an expert meeting at the FAO headquarters in Rome from 23 to 27 July 2012 to address the public health risks of histamine and other biogenic amines from fish and fishery products. This report summarizes the outcome of that meeting.