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Executive Summary 



OVERVIEW 



Fish and shellfish are nutritious foods that constitute desirable components of 

 a healthy diet. Most seafoods available to the U.S. public are wholesome and unlikely 

 to cause illness in the consumer. Nevertheless, there are areas of risk. The major risk 

 of acute disease is associated with the consumption of raw shellfish, particularly bivalve 

 molluscs. For persons living in areas in which reef fish are consumed (Hawaii, Puerto 

 Rico, the Virgin Islands), there is a risk of ciguatera; other natural toxins (paralytic 

 shellfish poisoning, neurotoxic shellfish poisoning, etc.) have been associated with 

 shellfish from endemic areas. Finally, there are less well-defined risks of acute and 

 chronic disease related to environmental contamination of aquatic food animals. 

 Dealing with such risks on a short-term basis requires improvements in the present 

 system of regulatory control. In the long term, amelioration and eventual elimination 

 of some hazards require strengthening and more effective application of control 

 measures to prevent the disposal of human and industrial waste into offshore marine 

 and fresh waters. 



Because of the strong public interest in seafood safety and the declared 

 intention at the congressional level to develop a new inspection system, a clear 

 opportunity exists to introduce innovative methodologies for control that address 

 directly the important health issues associated with seafood consumption. 



This report reviews the nature and extent of public health risks associated with 

 seafood, and examines the scope and adequacy of current seafood safety programs. 

 The conclusions and recommendations arrived at are summarized in the following 

 material: 



• Most current health risks associated with seafood safety originate in the 

 environment and should be dealt with by control of harvest or at the point of capture. 

 With minor exceptions, risks cannot be identified by an organoleptic inspection system. 



• Inspection at the processing level is important to maintain safety of seafoods, 

 but there is little evidence that increased inspection activities at this level would 

 effectively reduce the incidence of seafood-borne disease. 



• With currently available data, it is possible to identify the source of much of 

 the acute illness associated with seafood consumption, though the dimensions of the 



