Skin irritancy from fish is related to its postmortem age

Scratch tests with different fish products (fish juice from fillets, meat (fillet), skin, slime, juice from fish boxes and hold in the fishing boats, and entrails) were performed in 145 volunteers. All fish products were able to cause irritant skin reactions. Itching and erythema were the predominant symptoms and severe itch reactions occurred more often than severe erythema. The symptoms, in general, were mild to moderate compared to histamine. We found that the postmortem age of the fish was of great importance to the frequency and severity of the symptoms. Only the protein fraction of fish products caused symptoms. Our results are in accordance with the subjective complaints and clinical findings among workers in the fish processing industry.