FDA Delays Raw Oyster Ban Pending Further Study
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced its intention to delay a 2011 ban on raw oysters harvested from the Gulf of Mexico during warm weather months. FDA heard from “Gulf Coast oyster harvesters, state officials, and elected representatives from across the region about the feasibility of implementing post-harvest processing or other equivalent controls” designed to reduce illnesses from bacteria like Vibrio vulnificus. “It is clear to FDA from our discussions to date that there is a need to further examine both the process and timing for large and small oyster harvesters to gain access to processing facilities or equivalent controls in order to address this important public health goal,” stated the agency, which will conduct an independent study to assess how bacteria controls can be “feasibly implemented in the fastest, safest and most economical way.”
FDA specifically noted that it will (i) continue to collaborate with the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference to address Vibrio vulnificus in the region; (ii) work with the National Marine Fisheries Service to offer “technical assistance to facilitate the implementation of post-harvest processing or equally effective alternatives”; (iii) work with other federal agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to “review what types of grants and other forms of economic assistance may be available to support establishment of processing cooperatives or other mechanisms to ensure widespread access to post-harvesting processing facilities”; and (iv) provide “public health and science data to support the safest of these products for human consumption in the U.S. and abroad.” See FDA News Release, November 13, 2009.
Meanwhile, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has criticized FDA for apparently capitulating to “a small but vocal industry,” which “should not have a free pass from FDA to sell adulterated and potentially deadly oysters to the public.” As the watchdog opined, “Unfortunately this political victory for the Gulf Coast oyster industry is a health tragedy for their customers, and the action condemns scores of consumers to serious illness and death from this potent pathogen.” See CSPI Press Release, November 13, 2009.
