The Spanish Ministry of Health has confirmed 154 cases of food poisoning, triggered by the consumption of adulterated Spanish tuna in several regions of the country, in other European countries and in Portugal.
According to El Mundo newspaper, Spain’s Ministry of Health confirmed on Wednesday that the tuna poisoning had caused a rash of problems across Spain and in others countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Portugal.
Of the 154 cases of cases recorded, at least 105 have been traced to the Garciden brand of tuna.
The Spanish food safety agency, AECOSAN, issued a statement that already this year it had issued tuna warnings due to high concentrations of histamine which builds up due to poor fish conservation conditions.
The European Commission has expressed its concern to Madrid and has demanded information on what was being done to combat poor storage practices in the handling of tuna in Spain.
One of the tricks is to use plant extracts to give tuna a red colour so it looks fresher and gets a higher price but this also raises histamine levels.
Brussels has reported that the adulterated Spanish tuna was used in the canning industry and the Spanish consumer agency reported that Garciden's production line has been shut down as a precautionary measure.
Guardia Civil officers are investigating seven people suspected of being responsible for the food poisoning from the Almeria based factory. The company employees have been indicted for public health crimes and the forgery of documents.
According to the Spanish Ministry of Health, tuna poisoning with histamine does not pose a serious health hazard but does give people sore throats, redness, sweating, nausea, vomiting, headache and cutaneous erythema – a redness of the skin or mucous membranes, caused by increased blood flow in superficial capillaries.
