Safe Shellfish Part Two

 toHere is how they keep contaminated shellfish out of your supermarket. 

1. Guarding prohibited waters where it is illegal to harvest because of the water being contaminated.

2. In order to show suitability for harvest, they classify growing areas based on water quality.

3. Test water samples and shellfish

4. Examine the facilities that take care of the shellfish and make sure they use correct cleaning measures.

The above-mentioned tasks are enforced by each state that harvests shellfish. And states have the authority to make people follow the rules. They can give out licenses , but they can also take them back.

If the states find contaminated shellfish they can confiscate them, recall them, and destroy shellfish if they believe them or even one of them is contaminated.

Elizabeth O’Malley director of FDA’s State Program branch for the Northeast region said, “The states are the regulatory arm that enforces the shellfish laws,” and then added to her statement, “but the shellfish specialists are the face of FDA, much of their job is in the field providing training, guidance, and technical assistance to help the states do their jobs.”

The FDA has five regions that are geographical. These regions are Southeast, Southwest, Central, Pacific, and, finally, Northeast. It is in these areas that the regional shellfish experts are given the duty of regulating a group of states in that area. The person who is an FDA regional shellfish specialist have jobs to do, such as examining  waste water treatment plant to ensure that pollution won’t get in the water’s where shellfish grow. Evaluate the job done by state patrols as they look for people who are  for illegal harvesting, auditing state authorities to make sure they are correctly classifying a growing area.

Don Ullstrom is a regional shellfish specialist in FDA’s Northeast region said, “if there is a technical deficiency, we bring it to the states attention and they correct it, or we just make a recommendation to strengthen the program.

This program also zooms in on  laboratory testing and research. All of the state laboratories make it a habit to test for marine biotoxins and microoraganism by testing shellfish meat samples and also test water qualities.

FDA plays an important role in its research for shellfish safety. A toxic algae boom (red tide) in Texas waters in March 2008 was discovered by Alabama and Maryland.