Health & Safety Update (June 2010)
Water firms blamed for poisoned oysters
The UK's water companies have been accused of contaminating
oysters and putting restaurant diners at risk by dumping raw sewage
into rivers and the sea.
The number of people suffering food poisoning from oysters has
risen dramatically, with 230 becoming ill in just a three-month
period, according to new figures.
Britain's oyster industry is worth approximately £30m a year,
with the main fisheries in the Thames estuary and on the Essex
coast, in the Solent off the Isle of Wight and in the River Fal in
Cornwall.
Producers fear their livelihoods are being jeopardised by food
poisoning incidents linked to oysters. They point out that
norovirus, which contaminates the oysters, originates in humans and
so the source must be sewage being discharged into rivers and the
sea.
"Some Third World countries use better technology than we do to
treat sewage," said David Jarrad, assistant director of the
Shellfish Association of Great Britain. "We are as much the victims
in this as the consumer."
The Food Standards Agency has written to councils this year
warning of an increase in suspected norovirus outbreaks linked to
oysters. Its figures for December 2009 to February 2010 show that
32 restaurants and hotels were hit by outbreaks, with 230 people
falling ill.
Water companies are allowed to dump raw sewage into rivers and
the sea during wet weather to stop it backing up into homes, but
oyster producers want to see more investment to limit the amount
that is discharged.