Larsen, M.M., Jakobsen, H.H., Göke, C., Hendriksen, N.B., Rømer, J.K., Mohn, C., Jensen, A.N. & Schultz, A.C. 2019. Sanitary survey rapport 9: Hesselø Bugt og Isefjord. Aarhus Universitet, DCE – Nationalt Center for Miljø og Energi, 118. - Teknisk rapport fra DCE – Nationalt Center for Miljø og Energi nr. 147
http://dce2.au.dk/pub/TR147.pdf
Regulation (EC) No. 854/2004 of the European Parliament and the Council of April 29th, 2004, lays down specific rules for the organisation of official controls on products of animal origin intended for human consumption. Classification of production areas for live bivalve molluscs etc.[1] and the associated sampling plan are required to be based on so-called ‘sanitary surveys’. A sanitary survey is an assessment of the interactions between potential sources of microbial pollution, climate conditions and oceanography in the area. The EU Commission guidance for making a sanitary survey has formed the basis for this report. However, in certain cases, the Danish practice for microbiological sampling frequency and the previous classification on the basis of this are used. The Danish practice is described in ‘Muslingebekendtgørelsen’, which is summarised in Appendix 11.
The report covers production areas P107, P108 and P109 situated in southern Kattegat from Sjællands Odde towards Kullen (Sweden), and Isefjord down to Holbæk. The covered production areas within Hesselø Bay and Isefjord are marked ‘Rapportområde’ on the maps in this report.
The report recommends a microbiological sampling plan consisting of several designated sampling points and sampling frequencies for the individual production areas. It is further discussed whether merging of production areas into fewer areas could be an option in the future to reduce the number of sampling points, without compromising food safety.
The report is supported by publicly available data from monitoring of microbiological contamination in Isefjord where the concentrations of E. coli and Salmonella are determined in samples of mussels etc. taken at different sampling points within each production area. The report points to the most precautionary fixed sampling points for future monitoring.
In summary, the sanitary survey of Hesselø Bay and Isefjord identified a generally microbiologically homogeneous and relatively clean area with only a few exceptions of rare occurrences of relevant critical microbial contamination of which the last event was detected in 2015.
The data set represents the 10-year period 2009-2018 and revealed that 98 % of a total of 715 samples contained E. coli within the A-level (<230 E. coli/100 g); one (0,5%) of the 215 samples tested for Salmonella was positive. However, no data were available for P107-P09 and only 10 samples from P114 and 38 from P113 for the last 10 years. Due to the lack of data (for details see appendix 9, Table 6.9.1), only P111 is permanently classified in 2019.
Based on an assessment of sources and transport routes for microbiological contamination (sanitary survey) verified against historical microbiological data on Hesselø Bay and Isefjord, a microbiological monitoring programme is recommended for each of the production areas in Hesselø Bay and Isefjord.
In each of the recommended monitoring programmes, proposals for a sampling location, classification status (preliminary or permanent) and a sampling plan are outlined.
[1] Include live bivalve molluscs, echinoderms, tunicates and gastropods.
