Horizon scanning for management of emerging parasitic infections in fishery products

Abstract

Public organizations operating in health and food-safety sectors are increasingly realizing the advantages of the long-term view of risk uncertainties associated to biological hazards, served-up in the short-term to anticipate the problem and its handling. Thus, the horizon scanning is becoming a major strand in proactive risk management and patient-consumer protection continuity. This approach was recently explained in the scientific opinion on risk assessment of parasites in fishery products by the European Food Safety Authority, EFSA (2010), followed by the launching of a funding scheme for a specific EU Framework Program Project under the Knowledge Based Bio-Economy concept, KBBE (FP7-KBBE-2012-6), which drives the new EU 2020 strategy. The aim of this paper is to examine horizon scanning issues in relation to public health and industrial concern on the presence of parasites in fishery products recorded in the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) System. We focus on specific threats, targets, methods and challenges as a means of acquiring management goals and future objectives. The proposed horizon scanning identifies emerging ideas/technologies for an early handling of parasitized fish stocks/products for priority setting to inform strategic planning of stakeholders, policy-makers and health services. In order to accomplish this, a set of risk GIS maps illustrating the state of art about the presence of the zoonotic Anisakis spp. on commercial fish stocks of the last 65 years was firstly developed. Secondly, a program of 108 surveys among fish sellers of Galicia (NW Spain) were carried out with the main objective of getting information about hazard recognition, fish product management practices, quality self-controls and corrective and preventive measures in use. Additionally, during the “I International Symposium on strategies for management of parasitized seafood products” (Vigo, Spain), groups of researchers, technologists, official inspectors and industries participated in round tables with 3 different perspectives: market-industry, inspection and academia. All scanners agreed that the status quo to manage fish parasites in the production-to-consumption food pathway is unsatisfactory. The central message proposed a stable network performance based on collaborative software to provide multi-level information for industrial management of parasite contaminants in fish products. The discussion group also proposed to invigorate collaborative translational research and professional training as key drivers to fuel technological innovations and tech transfer, which may help to minimize/eliminate the risk of parasites that have public health and economic impacts in fish products.