Anisakis is a parasite found in fish, whose larvae are active when passing into the human digestive apparatus when eating raw or lightly cooked fish. Human anisakiasis is a public health problem that has become more common recently, and preventive measures are essential to control the disease. Thus, guidelines to reduce risk must cover the whole food chain, from practice during capture and handling, technological treatment of processed products, up to recommendations to the consumer and catering as a whole, as the last links in the chain, and who must also help in prevention.

Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004, on the hygiene of foodstuffs establishes an obligation for operators selling raw, or almost raw, fish products to subject the products to freezing at -20ºC for at least 24 hours.  

In order to help solve the problem, Royal Decree 1420/2006 of 1 December, was published on the prevention of parasitosis from Anisakis in fish products supplied by businesses serving food to end consumers or to collectives. The legal act complements community rules laying down the obligation for the establishments to inform consumers that fish products affected by the royal decree have been subject to freezing as stipulated. It also establishes a series of activities to be carried out by AESAN, such as: supporting the sector involved by designing or supplying information materials to facilitate compliance with the obligations, start up a general health control plan for Anisakis parasitosis, establish and disseminate the technical criteria required to identify in which cases freezing is necessary, and decide on information for consumers, in addition to training for staff in the businesses affected.

To fulfil the commitment to inform both the sector involved and consumers, an information leaflet (PDF, 2,40 Mb) and a poster (PDF, 1 Mb) have been prepared. The material has been widely disseminated due to collaboration from several business associations in the fisheries, distribution and catering sectors.

In order to comply with another of the orders in the royal decree, the Report from the Scientific Committee of AESAN on Measures to reduce risk associated with the presence of Anisakis (PDF, 72 Kb) has been issued, which gives recommendations on the safest heat treatments to which fish destined for cooking should be subjected, also the technical criteria to determine whether it is necessary to freeze marinated or salted fish products.

This report complements the Opinion of the Scientific Committee of AESAN on a question put by the Presidency, concerning factors promoting the appearance of Anisakis allergy, also preventive measures applicable (PDF, 156 Kb), which includes, among other items, a series of recommendations to consumers and caterers (February 2005).