Risk Assessment of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in Fishery Products in Korea

Introduction: Fishery products, which can be consumed without further cooking and/or reheating, can be considered potentially high-risk foods. Foodborne disease outbreaks associated with fishery products have generally been related to contamination by V. parahaemolyticus, as they are usually prepared by hand and stored at low temperatures. The most popular fishery products were monitored in this study, and a predictive growth model, frequency, consumption quantity and dose-response model were assessed in order to estimate the risk of V. parahaemolyticuscontamination in fishery products in Korea.

Purpose: This study describes a quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) model of Korean cases by V. parahaemolyticusdue to the consumption of fishery products taking into consideration the primary data acquired during the exposure assessment step. The results of this QMRA can be used by administrators to establish national regulations for the control of foodborne diseases.

Methods: We developed a one-dimensional risk assessment model to describe mathematically the annual risk of listeriosisassociated with the consumption of fishery products in Korea. We monitored microbial contamination levels of fishery products and frequency and consumption quantity for MRA.

Results: The mean and maximum number of cases by V. parahaemolyticusarising annually due to consumption of fishery product (flatfish sashimi) per fifty million individuals were estimated as 0.0165 and 3.38. These results indicated that the risk factors of regression sensitivities, from the retail-to-table pathway, could be applied to risk management. In the future, additional studies will be required to facilitate more realistic and accurate microbial risk assessments.

Significance: As the population of Korea numbers approximately 50 million, approximately 4 patients per year are expected to contract V. parahaemolyticus infections due to flatfish sashimi intake. Moreover, considering the increase in the consumption of fishery products, the actual risk is expected to be somewhat higher than the estimated risk. Also, additional studies regarding selective evaluation on groups of extreme intake and sensitive consumption, as well as the development of dose-response models.