ABSTRACT

Seafood constitutes a significant proportion of the world food supply, and more than 70 million tons are harvested each year. Per capita global annual seafood consumption averaged about 13 kg in the mid 1990s (Lipp and Rose, 1997) and estimated seafood consumption in the U.S. in 2000 was 9 kg per person per year (Spalding, 1995). Although it is an important and popular food source, seafood ingestion is not free from associated public-health risks. In fact, seafood ranked third on the list of products most frequently associated with foodborne disease (Lipp and Rose, 1997); one type of seafood-related disease, ciguatera fish poisoning, is the most commonly reported food poisoning caused by a chemical toxin (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1996).