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Amnesic shellfish toxins (domoic acid)

In the body: Domoic acid, the toxin behind amnesic shellfish poisoning, can bring diarrhoea and vomiting, even from a smaller portion of contaminated shellfish.

Not rated by dose: a flag on 2 reviewed foods, among them Clams, cooked and Mussels, cooked.

Too much in one go. Harm from one big portion. A food measured against the agency’s dose shows the grams that reach it in one sitting.

All hazards

The limit

  • The agency’s figure30 µg domoic acid/kg body weight
  • Basisacute reference dose (ARfD): the most in one sitting
    domoic acid group: acute reference dose (ARfD) 30 µg/kg body weight (EFSA CONTAM 2009), the lowest dose with mild effects in people, 0.9 mg/kg body weight, divided by 30; it applies to domoic acid and epi-domoic acid together (acute reference dose (ARfD) (human poisoning data))
  • Applies toper sitting; EFSA's large portion is 400 g of shellfish meat
  • Source EFSA 2009

Reviewed foods that carry it

2 reviewed foods carry it; none is rated by dose.

Grams to the limit

No reviewed food here has a measured level yet, so none has a gram figure. The limit is shown, ready for the first measurement; each line below says what the food is flagged for.

  1. Clams, cooked

    Not rated yet for a 100 g serving

    No gram figure for this food
    We have no measurement of this in this food, so there is no gram figure.

    EFSA 2009 · grade B

    How it’s rated

    Not rated: amnesic shellfish toxins are an acute, dose-based hazard, but no reference dose is applied here and no measured occurrence in clams was found, so there is no grams figure. EFSA takes 400 g as a realistic large portion of shellfish.

    Intake: a large shellfish portion (EFSA: 400 g)

    Measured on: no measured occurrence found

  2. Mussels, cooked

    Not rated yet for a 100 g serving

    No gram figure for this food
    We have no measurement of this in this food, so there is no gram figure.

    EFSA 2009 · grade B

    How it’s rated

    Not rated: EFSA's 2009 opinion sets an acute reference dose for domoic acid, but the value was seen only in secondhand sources and is left out, and no measured occurrence was found, so there is no grams figure. Canada controls this toxin by harvest-area closure.

    Intake: a large shellfish portion (EFSA: 400 g)

    Measured on: no measured occurrence found; Canada controls domoic acid by harvest-area closure (the 1987 PEI mussel outbreak is the origin of the program; not opened)

Sources