German legislation concerning parasites in fish

I am currently re-assesing our risk-analysis on (among other things) parasites in fish - and I can see that Germany now in about 10 years have had legislation and demands on this subject but I cannot find this legislation anywhere. Anyone knows where to find this?

Dear ConnyDK,

I presume you mean actual "fish". And the whole variety ?

I think various EC countries (but I don't know about Germany) use the Codex guidelines for parasite tolerances in fish which may vary depending on the species, presentation, size etc (and sometimes on the fishing grounds).

Rgds / Charles.C

Hi Charles - sorry I mean fish as in marinated herrings in barrols. And yes we here in DK and many other EC-contries use Codex codes but Germany have had some special legislation as they have had a case in TV about 10 years ago where parasites in fish were shown and it made a lot of fuzz all over the country.

I can read and understand the legislation in German but when I search on different websites I can not find legislation about hygiene - microbiology on a german level - only german EC-legislation. And I know it is out there somewhere - I have send the question to the German Ministry of Justice, hope for an reply :-)

Dear ConnyDK,

Time flies. I guess you are referring to this -

Gittelman discusses a 1988 German TV program which ran a story where they investigated herring and found worm larvae in the bellies and flesh, as well as live ones in jars of pickled herring in the supermarket (maybe even pickled sushi isn't so safe). As a result of this program, the "entire nation revolted when they learned of the infestation of worms in native fish. The West German fish market virtually collapsed overnight."

http://www.electroherbalism.com/Naturopathy/MiscAltHealthTopics/Parasites/FishandParasites.htm

Indeed seafood export to Germany shrank around that time. I noticed that shortly after Germany was strongly involved in developing various Codex fish quality standards

I hv previously seen local German standards for metals in seafood imports, eg Cd,Hg etc but nothing for parasites. Good luck.

Rgds / Charles.C

Dear Charles.C
Yes that`s what I was referring to :-)

And I have found the legislation "Bekanntmachung der Neufassung der Fisch-Hygiene Verordnung" von 8. Juni 2000, so problem solved. But thanks for trying

http://www.landtag.n...00819&bis=00845

Dear ConnyDK,

Congratulations and thks for posting result.

I hope you found the answer in the 27 pgs. (regretfully my German capabilities are dictionary only and the pdf file refuses to allow word searching in my 3 pdf programs [= "new pdf format"]). But other people hopefully may be more lucky.

Rgds / Charles.C

Hi all,

I know it's been a while since this thread was live, but I'd like to add that the above mentioned regulation was repealed with "Verordnung zur Durchführung von Verordnungen des gemeinschaftlichen Lebensmittelhyginerechts" on 8 Aug 2007 (see Art 23). Art. 4 of this new regulation specifies in §5 (2) that foods may be imported from EU Member States once they comply with national requirements in the EU Member State of origin.

In the historical "Neufassung der Fisch-Hygiene Verordnung" of 2000, it would appear that the limit for nematodes in fish was zero on visual inspection: The regulation stated that fish may not, on visual inspection, contain any living or dead nematodes (§4, Section (5)). Apparently it was deemed possible to discard parts of fish that contained nematodes, because the regulation also specified that parts of fish containing nematodes may not be marketed and bust be kept segregated from intact fish.