Histamine Content of Fish Meal

Abstract

As a cause of increasing death rete observed in chickens by ulceration in their muscular stomachs, histamine in fish meals used as their feeds has been suspected in Japanese poultry industry. Therefore, relatively fresh commercial products of fish meals and fish scraps were analysed to ascertain the degree and the mechanism of histamine accumulation in these products. In consequence, relatively higher amount of histamine was found in some whole fish meals manufactured from the red muscle fish, such as mackerel, sardine, and anchovy. While, the histamine content was lower in the meals manufactured without fish solubles addition, than in the solubles obtained from the identical raw fish at the same factories. Further, it was confirmed experimentally that considerable portions of histamine accumulated in the raw fish were pressed out into the stick water fraction by “cook and press” operation. These results may well suggest that fish solubles occupy a considerable portion of histamine accumulated in the deteriorated raw fish, such as mackerel and sardine, and contribute to increase the histamine content in the whole meals thus produced.