About Clostridium botulinum, Fish and Tilapia

Abstract

Fish and products are considered a food of nutritional quality that constituents a part of the human diet, produced and commercialized worldwide. Tilapia is one of the main fish for aquaculture production destined for human consumption in different presentations: refrigerated, frozen, fillet, cured, canned, among others. Fish, in addition to being a highly nutritious food, is also sensitive to deterioration and contamination along the food chain, being able to be contaminated mainly by microorganisms that are casual agents of consumer illnesses. Clostridium botulinum and spores can contaminate foods such as fish and products whose germination, growth and generation of botulinum toxin puts the health of consumers at high risk of acquiring botulism disease, which is of importance in public health due to its incidence and high fatality rate. This review describes in a general way the aspects related to fish and tilapia, foodborne diseases such as botulism, the causal agent, in addition to sanitary regulation, control and prevention of contamination of food products to protect food safety, and consumer’s health.