The Aquaculture Advisory Council (AAC) has received an official reply from the European Commission’s Directorate for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries’ director general, Charlina Vitcheva, to its recommendation that the risk of parasites in farmed fish to human health is re-evaluated.
In response to the recent results of the Horizon 2020-funded Parafish Control research project, the AAC asked the EC to instruct the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to revaluate whether the risk of transmission of parasites to humans by EU farmed fish is significant or negligible.
In its reply letter, the EC informs that the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety ‘has the intention to ask the EFSA for a re-evaluation of its scientific opinion on risk assessment of parasites in fishery products of April 20101, based on the conclusions of the [Parafish Control] project.’
The AAC recommends that if the EFSA considers the risk to be negligible, the current EU legislation should evolve to extend the exemption from the freezing treatment of products intended to be consumed raw or undercooked to all EU farmed fish products, according to the conditions fixed by the Commission Regulation (CE) N. 1276/2011.
