Raw Apalachicola Bay Oysters Will Not Be Banned, Says U.S. Food and Drug Administration
APALACHICOLA, FLORIDA – On Friday, the Gulf Coast oyster community applauded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for abandoning a unilateral plan to ban the sale of traditional, raw oysters.
Over the past two weeks, oyster dealers, workers, food lovers and community leaders throughout the Gulf Coast region and the nation joined forces in a massive grassroots effort to oppose the FDA plan.
Mike Voisin, a founding member of the Gulf Oyster Industry Council — whose family has harvested oysters off the coast of Louisiana for seven generations — welcomed the FDA announcement as a first step.
“We’re glad to see that the FDA has stopped its unilateral action,” Voisin said. “But traditional, raw Gulf Coast oysters must be available to consumers under any future plan. We support new technologies, but the oyster, just as Mother Nature made it, must always have a place at the table.”
He added, “If the FDA returns to working within the established process of the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference, we welcome that. But the agency should not suggest that post-harvest processing is the only way forward. We also remind FDA that a full economic analysis of the impact on jobs is required, not just a study of post-harvest processing. We look forward to working with them on such studies.”
The Gulf Oyster Community thanked the thousands of people from all walks of life who supported the simple right to eat traditional, raw oysters.
“We’re committed to further improving the safety of our already safe product, through existing plans for better refrigeration, and through new technologies,” Voisin said.
For more information, contact Franklin County Oyster and Seafood Task Force Director Kevin Begos online at director@seafoodtaskforce.org, or call (850) 653-3351.
