日本の生食文化を守りたい｜新アニサキス撃退法の社会実装へご支援を

 

 

To bring safe and delicious sashimi to the dinner table.

Novel technology that kills anisakis without cooking or freezing the fish

 

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Thank you for visiting this webpage. My name is Takao Namihira and I belong to the Institute of Industrial Nanomaterials, Kumamoto University.

 

During the course of my graduation research in the Faculty of Engineering, Kumamoto University, I became aware of “pulsed power”, an enormously powerful form of energy.

 

I have been fascinated by the many phenomena brought about by this immense power, and I have continued my research in the hope of developing technology that utilizes pulsed power to the benefit of society.

 

It was in 2017 that I learned that Anisakis parasite was casting a dark shadow over the fishing industry. Although my grandparents owned a fishing tackle shop and often took me fishing when I was young, until 2017 I had never heard of anisakis.

 

I was deeply impressed to learn about the efforts that the seafood industry had made to combat anisakis, since awareness of the parasite became widespread in the 1970s.

 

Indeed, for the next 50 years, people in the industry attempted numerous anisakis countermeasures in their desire to deliver safe and secure raw sashimi to consumers.

 

 

 

The fisheries industry has fought anisakis using various methods, such as UV rays, X-rays, ultrasound, high pressure, and chemicals. However, as of 2023, no effective method other than heating or freezing has been found.

 

In response to consumers’ desire to eat raw, unfrozen sashimi, people in the fisheries and retail industries have been working diligently to find and manually remove tiny anisakis parasites (as small as 1 mm in diameter and 2 cm in length) during the process of delivering the fish to consumers as sashimi.

 

However, it is extremely difficult to eliminate all of the parasites by this process. Unfortunately, despite these best efforts, there have been some cases where people have suffered from food poisoning caused by anisakis.

 

 

In Japan, if an anisakis food poisoning case occurs, the public health authorities can impose a business suspension order against the vender and restaurant under Article 55 of the Food Sanitation Act. This is a matter of life and death for those who serve fish.

 

That is why seafood processors can be suspended from doing business with their wholesale customers when an anisakis food poisoning incident occurs. In the past, companies that suffered multiple cases of anisakis food poisoning incidents lost 20 percent of their monthly transactions, or 50 million yen.

 

It is not difficult to imagine that if this situation continues, it may eventually be impossible to serve raw sashimi in Japan. In fact, in Europe and the U.S., there are already regulations in place that require sashimi to be frozen, despite the impact on customers’ dining experience.

 

Currently, the fisheries, retail, and restaurant industries are facing a double blow: the risk of food poisoning due to anisakis and consumers’ avoidance of raw sashimi.

 

We have launched this project with the hope of breaking out of this situation. Not only do we want to provide the best tasting sashimi possible, we sincerely believe that we are battling to retain the pride that has been built up in Japan’s raw seafood culture.

 

 

 

How can we neutralize (kill) anisakis parasites that hide in the flesh of raw fish?

Our challenge began with an idea:

"Might it be possible that the enormous energy released by pulsed power could play a pivotal role in tackling this problem?”

 

 

 

 

 

Sashimi is already subject to freezing regulations in Europe and the United States. According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, there are approximately 500 to 600 reported cases of anisakis food poisoning in Japan each year. However, according to analyses of health insurance claims from hospitals in Japan, the actual number of anisakis food poisoning cases may be much higher, estimated to be about 20,000 cases per year. 

 

If this trend continues, it is not difficult to imagine that freezing regulations will be introduced in Japan. We believe that we can avoid the freezing restrictions by providing safe and secure raw sashimi using pulsed power technology, before such freezing requirements come into effect. 

 

 

By raising funds more quickly through crowdfunding, we aim to implement the technology in society before freezing regulations are put in place. In addition, we aim to demonstrate the value-added aspects of our technology and equipment by showing that it can be applied to various species of fish other than horse mackerel, and kill more types of parasites than just anisakis.

 

Therefore, this crowdfunding project aims to further add value to the pulsed power anisakis-killing technology by confirming the pulse treatment conditions suitable for: (1) chub mackerel, which has softer meat than horse mackerel, (2) Pacific saury, which has many small bones, and for (3) salmon, which is a white-fleshed fish, compared to horse mackerel.

 

 

This figure describes the steps for the social implementation.

(1) Elucidate the mechanism of killing anisakis and search for effective techniques

We will elucidate the mechanism of killing anisakis and search for effective techniques.
This will be conducted, using academic fundings such as the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI)

(2) Confirm the possibility of horizontal development

We will confirm the potential of the technology through various experiments to see what kind of fish and other food it can be used for.
This will be conducted by the funds raised through this crowdfunding.

(3) Realize the device

We will provide the technology in the form of a device that can actually be used in the fishing industry.
This will be conducted with investment from supplier companies and fundings from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

 

Because anisakis-killing technology using pulsed power will result in a new type of high-voltage, high-power, and high-cost device, we fully recognize that the hurdle to social implementation is high.

 

That is why we consider that, by this crowdfunding project, three conditions must be demonstrated in order to make it easier for manufacturers to come forward as suppliers:

 

(1) The world has high expectations for this device;

(2) The device has a meaningful role when implemented in society;

(3) The technology has the potential to create a highly versatile device.

 

We sincerely believe that our approach to this project will ensure that all three conditions are met.

 

 

 

This crowdfunding project will promote activities to increase the value of the technology and equipment and to overcome any hurdles encountered. In addition, we will ensure that overall, the hurdles to success are lowered by securing separate budgets from companies that will become suppliers and the governmental and other national professionals, and by promoting the reduction of equipment costs.

 

In other words, we can accelerate the implementation of the technology in society by combining the two approaches: jump-starting the technology with your support through crowdfunding, and lowering the hurdles to success for the technology with private and national funding.

 

In the future, we also plan to explore the possibility of using this technology to kill parasites other than anisakis in seafood, as well as parasites found in a wide variety of non-marine food types. We believe that the development of this technology will preserve the future of various raw food cultures in Japan. We humbly look forward to your kind donation.