The effect of canning in pickled sauce and autoclaving on weight, toxin content, toxin concentration and
toxicity of steamed mussels was studied. Weight decreased by 25.5%. Okadaic acid (OA) and DTX2
content of mussel meat decreased by 24.1 and 42.5%, respectively. The estimated toxicity of the mussel
remained nearly unchanged (increased by 2.9%). A part of the toxins lost by the mussels was leached to
the sauce but the remaining part should have been thermally degraded. DTX2 underwent more
degradation than OA and, in both toxins, free forms more than conjugated ones. This process, therefore,
cannot be responsible for the large increments of toxicity of processed mussels erelative to the raw
ones-sometimes detected by food processing companies. The final product could be monitored in several
ways, but analysing the whole can content or the mussel meat once rehydrated seems to be the most
equivalents to the raw mussel controls.