Cleaning methods of the golden apple snail Pomacea canaliculata (Lamarck) for human food consumption: Basis for consumers food safety assurance

Abstract

The golden apple snail Pomacea canaliculata (Lamarck) is a high protein and nutritious food. One of the solutions to protein deficiency, helpful in solving nutritional shortcomings of the less fortunate community and very helpful in mitigating food security problems. However, these snails cause damage to crops and are considered as pests to many farmers. It carries rat-lung worms and a host of chistosomiasis. But this problem can be addressed through suitable preparations. This paper presents an appropriate method of preparing and cleaning golden apple snail for food consumption. The three methods presented, namely: (1) From the point source, (2) induced starvation, and (3) dressing method are all appropriate to use in cleaning and preparing golden snail for food. Plate count by Petri Film for a point source, induced starvation, and dressing method are 78,000 CFU/g, 57,000 CFU/g, and 54,000 CFU/g, respectively. These values are very low compared to the standard maximum value of 500,000 CFU/g. The three methods for cleaning and preparing Golden Apple Snails are negative for Coliform Count and Salmonella Tests. Thus the three methods presented are safe for food consumption.