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Seafood dealers say the proposed ban will hurt them in that frozen oysters do not have the same test as the raw kind. (Photo: Stock File)
New oyster ban proposal sparks opposition
UNITED STATES
Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 17:40 (GMT + 9)
Fishers and agricultural officials are criticising the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) proposed raw oyster ban as unusual and unnecessarily harmful to the industry.
From May to October, as of 2011, the FDA will put into effect a ban on live, in-the-shell Gulf oysters to reduce illnesses caused by the Vibrio vulnificus bacterium, which is destroyed when oysters are cooked. The pathogen can cause death in people with diabetes and other chronic illnesses.
Michael Taylor, senior advisor to the Commissioner of the FDA, said last week that the FDA will change Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) rules to require post-harvest processing (PHP) to reduce the pathogen before the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference (ISSC), Food Safety News reports.
The FDA will allow PHP methods of serving oysters all year. PHP methods freeze the oyster and thaw it out – which many people claim damages the seafood's taste, the Associated Press reports.
“I think it would hurt my business a great deal,” said Mack Carter, owner of Shuckums Oyster Bar. “It’s like freezing a steak; it just does not have the same taste.”
Industry groups have worked with the FDA to meet illness reduction goals for over a decade. By 2008, illness derived from raw oyster consumption was supposed to be reduced by 60 per cent, but Florida only reached a reduction of 45 per cent.
“We had made some pretty good strides, and were close,” said Alan Peirce, a bureau chief with the state Division of Aquaculture. “The question is, should you lower the boom on an industry for that, when eggs kill 10,000 for every one killed by oysters?”
About 15 deaths occur annually as a result of Vibro infections associated with raw oyster consumption, according to the FDA.
The FDA’s ban would dramatically impact the the economy across the Gulf Coast.
“It would be devastating. It would kill the industry,” said Anita Grove, executive director of the Apalachicola Chamber of Commerce.
Because PHP is expensive, the ban may harm small oyster harvesters more than others.
“The big guys might not be saddened by this. They could turn out to be the only game in town,” Peirce said.
US Senator Bill Nelson, D-Fla, and US Rep Allen Boyd, R-Monticello, co-authored a letter to Margaret Hamburg, head of the FDA, opposing the ban. The legislators indicated they will apply significant political pushback against it.
“It is a unilateral move, done without any input,” Boyd said in a Friday interview.
Related article:
- FDA to mandate processing of raw oysters
By Natalia Real
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com
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