Miglioramento della qualità e della shelf-life di molluschi bivalvi vivi. Messa a punto di sistemi innovativi di vendita al dettaglio.

To better the quality and shelf life of different live bivalves destined to retail, an innovative selling process directly from water was defined and tested in collaboration with an Italian hypermarket management. For this "conditioning" step, bivalves acquired from authorized dispatch centres were newly immerged into clean artificial seawater for 18-24 hours, and then placed into aquariums inside the selling area. E. coli, Salmonella spp. and Vibrio spp. content was monitored before and after the "conditioning" step. With few exception of stressed lots, the bivalves maintained and even improved their vitality after the re-immersion process, and also the microbiological content was significantly lowered. Particularly, residual E. coli was cleared in all the species tested, Vibrio spp. was reduced in Mytilus galloprovincialis, Tapes philippinarum, Ostrea edulis, but not in Chamelea gallina and Chalista chione. The consumers greatly appreciated the new proposal.