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FDA to pull back on oyster ban plan
Published November 22, 2009
Raw oyster lovers’ efforts to shuck a government proposal to put strict limits on the delicacy persuaded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to take a second look.
The FDA announced last week it was backing off a plan to ban raw oysters in 2011 unless they had undergone a process to protect against the vibrio vulnificus bacteria, which kills about 15 people a year.
Reacting to protests from many Gulf Coast oyster harvesters and elected officials, the FDA said it would do more study before implementing a ban.
“It is clear to the FDA from our discussions to date 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,” an agency news release stated.
FDA officials did not return phone calls seeking comment.
“I knew they weren’t going to do that,” said Wilfredo Rivera, who sells raw oysters on a half-shell at his restaurant, Willie Joe’s Seafood outside Freeport.
After the FDA announced it was pursuing a ban on untreated raw oysters from the Gulf of Mexico, Rivera’s customers expressed disbelief.
“They said there’s no way they could do it,” he said.
The anti-bacterial process treats oysters with a method similar to pasteurization, using mild heat, freezing temperatures, high pressure and low-dose gamma radiation.
Another process to clean oysters includes ultraviolet rays and flushing the oysters constantly with sea water.
But enthusiasts say the process doesn’t kill just the bacteria, it also kills the taste.
“That thing’s going to taste like a frozen item,” Rivera said.
The post-harvest process also would hurt wallets just as much as taste buds, Brazoria County Marine Extension Agent Rich Tillman said.
“It would make oysters very expensive,” he said.
Once the ban was in place and only treated oysters are available, local harvesters would not be able to make a living, Tillman said.
“You would have had entrepreneurs jumping in,” he said.
If passed, the ban would have affected 25 percent of the raw oyster market in the United States, an FDA release states.
“While this study is ongoing, the FDA will continue to reach out to state authorities and the Gulf Coast industry to discuss their concerns about the agency’s policy and measures the industry is pursuing to make oysters safer,” the release states.
John Tompkins is senior reporter for The Facts. Contact him at 979-849-8581.
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