NOM-027-SSA1-1993 - Mexican fresh/refrigerated/frozen fish standard (superseded)
NOM-027-SSA1-1993 was Mexico’s sanitary specification for fresh, refrigerated, and frozen fish. It was published in the Diario Oficial de la Federacion on 3 March 1995 and became mandatory 30 days after publication. It was later cancelled by NOM-242-SSA1-2009, which entered into force on 10 May 2011.
This page exists as a historical citation target for source papers that quote NOM-027-SSA1-1993. For current Mexican fishery-product compliance context, use mx-nom-242-ssa1-2009-fishery-products.
Heavy-metal limits in NOM-027-SSA1-1993
Section 6.4, “Contaminacion por metales pesados,” listed the following maximum limits for the covered fish products:
| Metal | Maximum limit | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Cadmium (Cd) | 0.5 mg/kg | Product as covered by the standard |
| Mercury (Hg), total | 1.0 mg/kg | Product as covered by the standard |
| Mercury as methylmercury | 0.5 mg/kg | Required only when total Hg exceeds the reference level, for lot acceptance/rejection |
| Lead (Pb) | 1.0 mg/kg | Product as covered by the standard |
Relationship to NOM-242-SSA1-2009
The 2011 successor standard NOM-242-SSA1-2009 consolidated Mexican sanitary specifications for fresh, refrigerated, frozen, and processed fishery products. Its transitory provision cancelled NOM-027-SSA1-1993. The current successor rule changed the way the mercury limit is presented for fishery products, using methylmercury categories rather than the older total-Hg plus conditional-MeHg structure.
How this page interacts with HMT&C
This page records a historical Mexican regulatory benchmark used by source literature. It does not set HMT&C certification thresholds and should not be cited as current law after 10 May 2011. Standards math should use this page only when preserving source-era regulatory provenance.
Sources
- Secretaria de Salud. NOM-027-SSA1-1993, Bienes y servicios. Productos de la pesca. Pescados frescos-refrigerados y congelados. Especificaciones sanitarias. Source URL: https://www.salud.gob.mx/unidades/cdi/nom/027ssa13.html
- Diario Oficial de la Federacion. NOM-242-SSA1-2009, Productos y servicios. Productos de la pesca frescos, refrigerados, congelados y procesados. Especificaciones sanitarias y metodos de prueba. Source URL: https://sidofqa.segob.gob.mx/notas/5177531
Verification notes
- Created 2026-05-18 by Codex during P0149 seafood manual-fetch ingest after Rodriguez-Mendivil et al. 2019 cited NOM-027-SSA1-1993 as the Mexican benchmark for fresh-fish Hg, Pb, and Cd comparisons.
- The official Secretaria de Salud HTML page gives the publication heading “03-03-95” and the vigencia clause states that the standard became mandatory 30 days after publication; this page therefore uses 1995-04-02 as the effective date.
- NOM-242-SSA1-2009’s transitory provision states that, upon its entry into force, NOM-027-SSA1-1993 is cancelled. A later 2012 modification notice states that NOM-242 entered into force on 10 May 2011.
Page history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.