Louisiana health and wildlife agencies are the latest to decry the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s proposed ban on raw Gulf oysters.
Several shellfish organizations, including the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association and the Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association, have also criticized the FDA’s unexpected proposal.
At the biennial Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference (ISSC) meeting in Manchester, N.H., last week, FDA’s senior advisor to the commissioner, Michael Taylor, said the agency would require new post-harvesting methods for live Gulf oysters. The methods would effectively prevent live oysters from being sold during a five- to eight-month period.
“Our public health sanitarians are extremely thorough in their efforts to sample and monitor oyster production in our state, to ensure the safety of our oysters,” said Alan Levine, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH). In Louisiana, there is about one death every other year from oyster consumption, according to a DHH spokesman.
The raw oyster ban is not needed because the FDA and ISSC have been working together for 10 years to educate consumers on oyster safety and to improve the industry’s safety measures, noted the DHH and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (DWF).
The oyster industry recently began refrigerating all oysters for half shell consumption within five hours after harvest during the summer months. In addition, all Louisiana restaurants that serve raw oysters must state on menus that they can be dangerous to consumers’ health. Many states require a similar warning on menus.
Meanwhile, ISSC delegates voted unanimously at last week’s conference to recommend that the FDA conduct a cost-benefit study and a consumer-acceptance study, before it changes its raw oyster guidelines.
Louisiana officials are also concerned about the economic impact of a ban. The state’s oyster industry is valued at about USD 318 million (EUR 216 million) annually. The industry also employs more than 3,500 people.
“The effect of the proposed ban would greatly impact the Gulf Coast oyster industry and threaten thousands of jobs,” said Robert Barham, secretary of the DWF. “The capacity to post-harvest process the volume of oysters our fishermen bring to the dock is not in place, and would be virtually impossible to put in place within the FDA’s timetable.”
