Modification and Single-Laboratory Validation of AOAC Official Method 977.13 for Histamine in Seafood to Improve Sample Throughput

Histamine is the main causative agent in scombrotoxin fish poisoning, the most frequently reported illness related to fish consumption. The AOAC official method for histamine determination in fish is the fluorometric method AOAC 977.13, which is sensitive and reproducible but somewhat labor intensive and time consuming. We investigated multiple modifications to this method in an attempt to reduce assay time and increase sample throughput while maintaining the performance of the original method. Some of the attempted modifications negatively affected the performance characteristics of the method. However, omitting the heating step during extraction and replacing the cuvette style fluorometer with a microplate reader retained method performance while increasing sample throughput. Therefore, we adopted these modifications and conducted a single-laboratory validation. The recovery, precision (RSD), and LOD of the modified method assessed by the single-laboratory validation ranged from 92 to 105%, 1 to 3%, and 0.2 to 0.5 ppm, respectively, in tuna, mahi-mahi, and Spanish mackerel samples. We conclude that the AOAC 977.13 fluorometric method, modified as described, will improve assay time and sample throughput efficiency cumulatively, as the number of sample units analyzed increases. We anticipate that this modified method could be used by regulatory agencies and other laboratories following successful multilaboratory validation.