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Seafood SafetyWhat's New
- International Conference on Molluscan Shellfish Safety 2026
The FAO Reference Centre was part of the organising committee for the International Conference on Molluscan Shellfish Safety, held in September 2026 in Exeter in the Southwest of England. The conference comprised over 100 scientific presentations and posters, covering all aspects of bivalve sanitation and safety including bacterial and viral contamination, biotoxins and surveillance and monitoring. A full social programme enabling bivalve safety professionals to meet and exchange ideas was also included. After a gap of 7 years since the last full ICMSS conference, this successful edition has re-established it as a regular fixture in the scientific calendar.
Archived information on the scientific programme including presentation and poster abstracts is available on the conference website.
- FAO Globefish webinar on safe bivalve production for sustainable markets held
As part of the ICMSS conference, FAO Reference Centre experts, in collaboration with academic and FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture colleagues, held a webinar "Building safe bivalve production for sustainable markets", as part of the FAO Globefish series. A recording of the webinar is available here.
- New version of generic protocol for viruses in shellfish published
A new version of the Generic Protocol for Quantification of Norovirus and Hepatitis A Virus in Bivalve Molluscan Shellfish has been published on the protocols page of this website. This protocol contains an important correction to section 7.2 on RNA extraction, in addition to other minor changes.
- International Guidance on algal toxins in bivalves published
The FAO, IOC-UNESCO and IAEA have jointly developed and (in 2026) published the Guidance on Monitoring Algal Toxins in Bivalve Molluscs, to complement the earlier FAO/WHO guidance on growing area aspects of bivalve mollusc sanitation programmes. The project to develop this guidance included expert contribution from the FAO Reference Centre.
- E. coli method demonstration video added to website
A video demonstrating the Most Probable Number reference method for enumeration of E. coli has been added to this website. This is designed to help user laboratories to implement the detailed protocol included elsewhere on the website.
