Impact of seafood regulations forVibrio parahaemolyticusinfection and verification by analyses of seafood contamination and infection

Abstract

SUMMARYConsumption of seafood contaminated withVibrio parahaemolyticuscauses foodborne infections, which are on the rise owing to increased consumption of raw seafood in Asia, Europe, North America, and other regions.V. parahaemolyticusinfections have been common in Japan since the 1960s. Following an epidemic in 1997, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare instituted regulations for seafood in 1999, which appear to be reducingV. parahaemolyticusinfections. In this review, we describe the scientific findings for these regulations. Analyses of theV. parahaemolyticusserotypes and isolate characteristics in samples from infected patients and contaminated seafood are discussed. In addition, based on the results of a survey, we show that new food safety regulations have led to improvements in food hygiene at many seafood retail shops, food service facilities, and restaurants. This example from Japan could be of immense help to control foodborne infections in other countries.