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FDA seeks ban on raw oysters from Gulf
Published October 30, 2009
FREEPORT — Some eat them with a little Tabasco sauce, maybe on a cracker, others slurp them straight from the shell.
The urge for the delicacy that is the Gulf Coast oyster will cause some to drive a long way to find them, said seafood restaurant owners.
“People who like that, they will seek out a restaurant who serves it,” said Drew Ryder, owner of On The River Restaurant in Freeport.
But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is trying to ban the sale of bottom-feeding shellfish unless they first are treated to destroy potentially deadly bacteria.
About 15 people die each year in the United States from raw oysters infected with vibrio vulnificus, which typically is found in warm coastal waters between April and October.
Most of the deaths occur among people with weak immune systems caused by health problems such as liver or kidney disease, cancer, diabetes or AIDS.
“Seldom is the evidence on a food-safety problem and solution so unambiguous,” Michael Taylor, a senior adviser at the Food and Drug Administration, told a shellfish conference in Manchester, N.H., this month in announcing the policy change.
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, Brazoria County Marine Extension Agent Rich Tillman said.
“It takes up to two weeks,” he said.
Those who oppose the move say many oyster dealers wouldn’t be able to afford the process, not to mention it gives the oysters a bad taste.
“It’s not good at all,” said Wilfredo Rivera, who sells raw oysters on a half-shell at his restaurant, Willie Joe’s Seafood outside Freeport. “It has a taste. But it’s a frozen, fish taste.”
Raw oysters are a tradition for some on the Texas Gulf Coast and most are aware that it could pose a health problem, Rivera said.
“You have to know what you’re doing,” he said, laughing.
Until the 1960s, raw oysters rarely were eaten in the summertime — the old adage was never eat oysters in the months without an R in them. But changes in harvest patterns and advances in refrigeration and post-harvest treatment have made the industry a year-round business. About three-fifths of the Gulf’s oysters are harvested during the warm months.
The FDA is promoting a ban because high-risk groups are not heeding warnings about raw oysters, and millions of other people might not know they are vulnerable.
But the responsibility should lie with customers, said Lin Biar, owner of the Red Snapper Inn in Freeport. Customers die more often from other foods that don’t face a ban, he said.
“I think it’s personal responsibility,” Biar said.
Rivera said if the ban passed, he wouldn’t be able to sell raw oysters because customers who drive to his restaurant are not looking for treated oysters.
“These oysters are fresh,” he said.
Other than making them harder to find, the ban also will make a plate of raw oysters expensive, Ryder said.
“If that goes through, they will go through the roof,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
John Tompkins is senior reporter for The Facts. Contact him at 979-849-8581.
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