Determination of Contamination Profiles of Human Bacterial Pathogens in Shrimp Obtained from Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Shrimp continues to be an important export commodity for Indonesia and contributed significantly to the country's revenue. However, shrimp exports have been frequently rejected by importing countries due to filth, Salmonella and insanitary conditions. This study was conducted to evaluate the profiles of bacterial contamination of ocean and aquaculture shrimp obtained from the area of West, Central and East Java; frozen shrimp and shrimp during industry production of frozen shrimp. The study indicated that both ocean and aquaculture shrimp obtained from the study area were heavily contaminated. On the average, shrimp obtained from West Java were more contaminated than those obtained from East and Central Java. The total bacterial counts were generally higher in ocean shrimp than those of aquaculture ones. Salmonella was present in two of 32 samples of ocean shrimp and in four of 32 samples of aquaculture shrimp obtained from the study area. Vibrio cholerae was not detected in shrimp from West Java, but was found in three out of 16 samples obtained from East and Central Java. V. parahaemolyticus was frequently identified in aquaculture shrimp but absent in fresh ocean shrimp. Studies on shrimp collected from six sampling points during frozen shrimp production revealed that processing will reduce the number of total bacterial, E. coli, and Staphylococal counts. However, the processing did not effectively reduce the incidence of Salmonella or V. parahaemolyticus when the raw material has been contaminated with the pathogens. Sizing and grading as well as arrangement of shrimp before freezing were considered as the critical points where bacteria should be controlled to inhibit growth and cross contamination with bacteria such as Listeria. Implementation of Good Agricultural Practices in production of raw shrimp as well as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point at the line processing are expected to improve the quality of fresh and frozen shrimp.