If harvesters, dealers and processors don't start complying with rules, consumption of untreated oysters could be curbed in the summer months
While the rules for Gulf of Mexico oyster refrigeration likely won't change much come May 1, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to clamp down much more stringently on regulations enacted over the past several years. The fear is that if Louisiana is found in noncompliance of federal health regulations for yet another year, the consumption of untreated oysters could be curbed in the summer months.
View full sizeBetween May and October, oysters intended for raw consumption out of state must be refrigerated at or below a temperature of 45 degrees within an hour of being caught.After an information session with oyster harvesters, dealers and processors in St. Bernard Parish on Monday night to explain all the rules -- mainly emphasizing the importance of now following them -- Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries and Department of Health & Hospitals officials will hold another session in Plaquemines tonight and a third and last in Houma on Tuesday.
The meeting in the Belle Chasse Auditorium, 8442 Highway 23, is scheduled from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. tonight. The Houma meeting will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Houma Municipal Auditorium, 800 Verret Street.
The meetings mainly will focus on time and temperature requirements for controlling vibrio vulnificus illness, a rare but deadly bacteria sometimes present in raw oysters.
In October 2009, the FDA had announced that beginning in 2011 all Gulf oysters would have to go through a post-harvest treatment process before being sold between the months of April through October. The move was meant to reduce the risk of the vibrio vulnificus illness.
But after pressure from Louisiana and Gulf Coast lawmakers, FDA officials changed course, saying that due to "legitimate concerns" from the oyster industry, it would hold off on the new rules.
Since 2010 federal laws have required that between May and October "white tag" oysters -- those that can be sold out of state and consumed raw -- must be refrigerated at or below a temperature of 45 degrees within an hour of being caught and that within six hours their internal meat temperature must have dropped to 55 degrees.
Prior to that 2010 regulation, rules were much less stringent, with oysters in the summer only needing to be refrigerated within 10 hours, with no required internal meat temperature.
The FDA has found Louisiana in noncompliance of the new regulations the past two years and state DHH and Wildlife & Fisheries officials on Monday night warned that if Louisiana is found so again this year that it's possible the FDA will really drop the ax.
But to get oysters to the necessary internal 55 degree temperature requires expensive equipment, costing about $10,000, according to Mervyn LeBlanc, owner of a Houma refrigeration company who spoke on Monday in Chalmette.
The information sessions tonight and next week will discuss the new increased enforcement by FDA and state health and wildlife officials, required documentation and record keeping including needed log books, along with refrigeration and cooler box equipment and fabrication options.
One of the new regulations not yet on the books but expected to be approved by the federal government in the next month is for "green tag" oysters -- oysters that can be shipped out of state but cannot be eaten raw. They likely will soon have to have a time-temperature recorder monitoring them when shipped to make sure that their refrigeration units maintain the required 45 degree temperature. Currently, the only requirement for green tag oysters is that they are landed and refrigerated by midnight into a cooler that maintains 45 degrees.
In addition to white and green tags, "fuchsia" tags -- or pink tags -- can only be sold within the state. Between May and October, pink tag oysters must be refrigerated at 45 degrees or less within five hours of being caught. There is no internal meat temperature requirement for them.