• Due to an error, a different story appeared on this page earlier. It has now been corrected.

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

MANDATORY sanitary certifications are needed for fishery suppliers to prevent outbreaks of illnesses like those associated with conch poisoning, Paul Maillis, director of the National Fisheries Association of the Bahamas, said yesterday.

Mr Maillis spoke to The Tribune after the Bahamas Agricultural Health and Food Safety Authority released a statement saying it is aware of suspected conch poisoning cases.

The BAHFSA said conch poisoning is usually caused by the bacterium Vibrio parahaemolyticus and that the contamination is usually caused by poor hygienic practices during the handling and preparation of conch.

Mr Maillis said: “Conchs are not known to have naturally high occurring toxic chemicals and disease in them and they are very clean and sterile animals. All natural organisms in the ocean have bacteria, but they are normal. The problem arises in the processing. When there are spikes in shellfish poisoning, that comes from improper handling. There is no naturally occurring poisoning in conch that is going to hurt people. Isolated incidents of maybe a bad batch brought in by a large boat or dealt with by a processor can be contaminated by salmonella or other bacteria due to the processing standards. Not everyone follows proper procedures.”

Mr Maillis said it should be mandatory for fishery suppliers to get the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certification, which is offered by the Department of Marine Resources and teaches people about the proper and safe handling of seafood.

“A lot of what’s happening is people don’t know how to prepare their product and prevent the growth of these bacteria,” he said.

Mr Maillis added that authorities should focus on contact tracing to trace the source of bad batches of seafood.

“Contact tracing is difficult because there is very little accountability in the handling of seafood,” he said. “The government issues licenses to processors and commercial fishermen but a myriad of little men who handle conch and seafood before it ever gets to the processor or retailer don’t need a certification.

“The way the seafood industry works is you have a middleman on the ground, let’s say in West Grand Bahama, that would go around to fishermen on boats and would buy their conchs. The conchs would be taken back to their house where they have freezers. They would bag them up and freeze them.

“There could be a situation where a fisherman didn’t properly handle a product and that mixes in with all the rest of products he got that day and all the harmful products will now be contaminating the other conchs, unknown to anyone.

“It’s not just one group of individuals that is always responsible, it can be anywhere along the supply chain. Some processors take extreme steps to try and sterilise products. Some use bleach. Most of the time those are very effective in keeping the contamination down. All seafood if not handled properly has the potential to have poisonings, some of them severe.”

Despite the new outbreak, Mr Maillis said the industry is unlikely to take a big hit financially.

“There are no implications in terms of people desiring conch or demand for conch,” he said. “Conch will always remain an extremely high value commodity. Developments that would lead to a reduction in conch harvesting would be for conservation methods, not conch poisoning. In the short term, suppliers should only buy from trusted suppliers who they know have never given them problems before.”