Analysis of Histamine Level in Lemuru Fish (Sardinella lemuru) in the Canning Industry

Abstract

The presence of histamine is one of the food safety issues in the canned fish manufacturing industry. Histamine usually appears in canned fish products due the raw material employed is pelagic fish such as lemuru which is rich in histidine amino acid. Histidine can cause histamine production via decarboxylation reaction by bacterial activity during the heat canning process. As a result, the purpose of this study was to investigate the increase in histamine levels that occurred in both canned fish raw materials and final products utilizing the Biofish 300 method. Aside from that, thermocouple and thermometer were used to analyze the fish’s central temperature and surface. SNI 2729:2013 was also utilized to assess the physical quality of raw materials regarding fresh fish. Based on the result, the histamine level increased significantly from raw material to product, accounting for 10.24 ppm and 16.92 ppm respectively (P < 0.05). However, the histamine levels in all samples remained below the company’s threshold (50 ppm) indicating canned fish was still safe to consume. To mitigate the effects of increased histamine, industry must develop a cold chain system by observing the central temperature of raw materials (≤4°C), and the processing room temperature (≤25°C) regularly. Similarly, prior to further processing, the raw material quality should not be less than 7.