Posted on 10/29/2009 6:15:32 AM PDT by Ebenezer
A Food and Drug Administration decision to impose draconian new rules on oysters harvested from the Gulf of Mexico could wreck Louisiana's $300 million-a-year industry and restrict the diets of raw oyster lovers here and elsewhere for most of the year -- all in a misguided effort to prevent a serious but rare health threat.
The FDA announced guidelines, to go into effect in 2011, that would require all Gulf oysters harvested from April through October to undergo a sterilization process before they can be sold. That could double or even triple the cost of Louisiana oysters for consumers and alter their taste, texture and color, something that could hurt this state's famous cuisine.
The agency is taking the step because of vibrio vulnificus, a bacteria that thrives in warm water and can sicken people with immune system disorders who eat raw oysters. People who suffer from AIDS, cancer, kidney disease and diabetes and those who abuse alcohol are at risk. About 30 people per year become ill from vibrio vulnificus, and half those cases are fatal.
But requiring every single Gulf oyster to be sterilized for seven months of the year -- even those destined for the pot or pan and not the half shell -- isn't reasonable. Labeling and other steps to educate those at risk so that they can avoid raw oysters makes far more sense, and the FDA agreed to that very approach in the late 1990s.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Pelican State ping
There are already plenty of warnings about eating raw oysters, even during R months.
Does the government have to screw up everything? We aren’t turning into France. We’re becoming Albania.
Not to demean those 30 people and their suffering, but the idea of decimating an entire industry for this is outrageous.
There isn’t much a government led group of wacko’s will do which is not outrageous.
Don’t U know!
Of course I know that, I’m just expressing my frustration.
This country is hemorrhaging jobs, and this Administration keeps coming up with more rules and regs that do nothing but hemorrhage more.
I'm from Louisiana and everyone knows about our passion for food (except our inept government). They better watch out messing with our oysters. If they don't want to eat them fine. We, know (and the tourists are informed)where and when to eat them and that's the only important thing.
They The FDA doesn't have enough days in the year to regulate all the critters and road kill we eat in Louisiana and we make it all taste good. Also, I bet if the Obama’s/ Politicos/hollywood want Oysters to impress their guests at a dinner party they will have them flown in no matter what. Cretins. An YES the government has to screw up everything - that's what they do best. We just have to find different people to run it in 2010 and 12.
With numbers that small (far dwarfed by the toll taken by more mundane sources of food poisoning) I wonder if this number chiefly comprises the immunocompromised.
What are the food poisoning numbers for those who insist on eating hamburger tartare?
To be sure, if I were going to try to eat an oyster raw (blech) I would want to know it was from an active operation whose product was being regularly consumed that way.
Better to have irradiated oysters as an option (rather than a requirement) for the eat-it-raw crowd if they want them, much like pasteurized shell eggs.
You don't know what you are missing!!!!
...I would want to know it was from an active operation whose product was being regularly consumed that way.
I haven't eaten Gulf oysters in years, but that was the only way I knew eating them raw was fine. That is still the way I eat them now. Of course no Gulf oyster can compare to a Chincoteague oyster, raw or steamed :) (I'll accept the incoming from my Gulf Coast FReeper FRiends on that one)
Regional rivalry aside, this regulation is absolute overkill. The regulations on oyster harvesting are already so overboard that I have to conclude this is just another way for this administration to further kill jobs and has nothing to do with protecting the "public health."
The next thing we know the government will mess up the crawfish. I know its coming.
The government is full of militant vegetarians and not to mention (gasp) Yankees..
I resemble that remark.............not because I'm in the government or a vegetarian --- I used to be a Yankee.
All kidding aside, I do agree with you.
Thanks to the envrioweinies the government is out to destroy every vestige of the commercial fishing industry in this country and make us rely on imports of dubious origin.
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