Potential risk of botulinum neurotoxin -producing clostridia occurrence in canned fish

Abstract

Heat treatment is indispensable in fish canning to provide an acceptable shelf life. Its optimisation reduces the risk of the presence of Clostridium botulinum spores, which could potentially cause botulism cases. This study evaluated canned fish samples for botulism neurotoxin (BoNT)-producing clostridia contamination and can bulging through microbiological contaminant growth. A new analytical approach was developed for detection of such clostridia and phenotypically similar species.

Keywords

• clostridium sporogenes
• clostridium botulinum
• canned fish
• microbiological contamination