Demonstration of histamine in nile fish
Food Hygiene and Control Department, Fac. Vet. Med., Benha University*
ABSTRACT
In this study, we determine histamine concentration in three types of fish (Oreochromis niloticus , Clarias lazera and Mormyrus niloticus ) 30 of each collected from fish markets of El Qualiobeya governorate,Egypt ,The results revealed that the mean value of histamine in the examined samples were 18.23 ± 1.56 mg/kg ; 14.90 ± 1.21 mg /kg and 12.65 ± 1.07 mg /kg for Oreochromis niloticus, Clarias lazera and Mormyrus niloticus respectively. According to Egyptian Organization of Standardization which recommended that the critical limits for histamine should not be more than 20mg/100g in fish, the un-accepted samples represented as 26.67 %,16.67 % and 13.33 % in Oreochromis niloticus , Clarias lazera and Mormyrus niloticus , respectively .So,all samples are acceptable. Although biogenic amines (Bas) formation is the result of bacterial growth, the presence of these undesirable compounds, especially histamine, is not always noticed by consumers. Thus, histamine is the main marker for the evaluation of quality and safety of fish.