It’s nearly a year after the BP oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Department of Agriculture is reminding people that Florida seafood is safe to eat.
The Florida Department of Agriculture is responsible for testing seafood harvested from the Gulf of Mexico and laboratory testing shows that Florida seafood products are safe and plentiful and have not been affected by the oil spill.
The Department has screened more than 230 seafood samples, including finfish, shrimp, crabs, lobsters and oysters, and less than 11 percent were found to have any traces of possible oil contaminants.
All findings were less than 1/1000th of the Food and Drug Administration’s levels of concern.
With an additional $10 million in funding from BP over the next three years, the Division
of Food Safety will enhance its capabilities to test for long-term effects of the oil spill.
Enhanced capabilities and additional staff will enable the Division to collect and analyze
up to 80 samples per month.
Even though tests have shown that Florida seafood is safe to eat, the seafood-eating public remains wary but the state is doing what it can to get sales back up.
In August 2010, the Division rolled out the ‘Gulf Safe’ logo to assure customers that
Florida seafood is safe to eat.
The campaign encouraged restaurants and retail stores to label their products and aired ads across the region to raise awareness for the safety of Gulf seafood.
An additional $10 million dollars from BP will be used to step up the marketing
campaign in an effort to restore public confidence to levels from before the oil spill.
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