The FDA has put on hold its plans to ban the sale of raw oysters harvested during the warm months of the year after criticism from oystermen and legislators from oyster-harvesting states. The FDA said it would continue to study the issue: oysters tainted with bacteria kill 15 Americans each year.
Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.), who is going after Senator David Vitter's seat, said that 15 people was a "pretty reasonable" number of people to allow to die given the size of the U.S.
The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that it will conduct further studies before implementing a plan to ban raw, untreated Gulf Coast oysters during months when they are most likely to be infected with a harmful bacterium.
The plan had sparked outcry from Southern politicians who feared it would devastate the regional industry.
The FDA proposal, set to take effect by summer 2011, was an attempt to prevent the 15 deaths on average that occur in the United States each year from the consumption of raw oysters infected with the bacterium Vibrio vulnificus.
A number of post-harvest treatments have been developed to kill Vibrio, but some aficionados say treatment defiles the taste of a classic and simple culinary experience.
Many in the oyster industry also said that the treatment equipment is prohibitively expensive for the mom-and-pop oyster processors that dot the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas. Few companies are equipped with the treatment technology.
On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, the FDA came in for stinging criticism from Democrats and Republicans who said they worried about the effect the April-to-October ban would have on an industry that supports 3,500 jobs.
The White House hasn't given up, though. The FDA is meeting with other agencies to see if there is a way to help smaller oystermen afford the equipment that can heat or freeze the raw oysters to kill the bacteria before they are sold. But that is unlikely to go anywhere, and opponents of the ban say freezing or heating ruins the texture of the raw oysters.
