ABSTRACT
Marine food has become an important part of the healthful diet, which not only provides lean protein and omega-3 fatty acids but also reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Whereas, intake of seafood could also lead to the danger of eating spoiled marine food. The major cause of marine food linked to diseases is bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Although, most of the seafood are preserved by salting, smoking, drying, etc. These products are at risk of contamination due to stable heat biotoxins from fish and heat stable microorganisms. There might be a small number of infectious microbes in fish or shellfish at the time of harvest, and the contamination by remaining organism might have occurred during handling and processing or by unhygienic methods. In recent years, the isolation of beneficial probiotic bacteria such as Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, Pediococcus, etc. from the fish gut and traditional fermented fish product (Tungtap, Nagari, etc.) has been reported. These organisms confer a health benefit on the consumer like improving acute liver injury caused by D-galactosamine. In addition, using these organisms as a starter for fermented and salted fishes showed potent antimicrobial activity against infectious pathogens and suppressed biogenic amine accumulation in salt fermented marine-based foods. Therefore, this chapter gives an overview about the harmful and the beneficial effects of microorganism on seafoods.
