Hygienic-sanitary evaluation of sushi and sashimi sold in Messina and Catania, Italy.

Sushi and sashimi are traditional Japanese
food, mostly consisting of raw seafood alone or
in combination with rice. Eating sushi and
sashimi has become popular in many countries
even outside Japan. This food is not free
from health risks such as ingestion of pathogenic
bacteria or parasite. The aim of this
study was to investigate on hygienic-sanitary
quality of sushi and sashimi sold in the cities
of Messina and Catania, Southern Italy. Fifty
samples (38 sushi and 12 sashimi) were
analysed to determinate the aerobic
mesophilic bacteria (AMB), psycrophilic bacteria
(PB), Enterobacteriaceae, specific spoilage
organisms (SSOs), Pseudomonas spp., coagulase-
positive staphylococci, micrococci, Vibrio
spp., Bacillus cereus, Salmonella spp. and
Listeria monocytogenes. In sushi, AMB ranged
from 5.00 to 8.18 log CFU/g, PB from 4.70 to
7.13 log CFU/g, Enterobacteriaceae from 1.41 to
6.67 log CFU/g, while SSOs and Pseudomonas
spp. from 3.49 to 7.72 and from 3.36 to 8.00 log
CFU/g, respectively. Micrococci ranged from
3.53 to 5.03 log CFU/g and coagulase positive
staphylococci were found in 16 samples (2.00
to 3.60 log CFU/g). Bacillus cereus was found
in 3 samples (1.70 to 4.00 log CFU/g), while
Vibrio spp. was found in 15 of the sushi samples
(1.70 to 3.70 log CFU/g). In sashimi, the
AMB, PB and SSOs values were higher than
7.00 log CFU/g, Pseudomonas spp. and
Enterobacteriaceae were from 6.00 to 8.00 log
CFU/g, while Vibrio spp. were found in six
samples with means of 2.00 log CFU/g. No
Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes
were detected in all sushi and sashimi samples.