California may ease restrictions on Gulf Coast oysters

The state of California may ease restrictions on imported oysters harvested from the Gulf of Mexico.

In 2004 California implemented a ban on Gulf Coast oysters harvested between April and October unless the oysters are post-harvest treated for marine bacteria, specifically vibrio vulnificus.

And California’s standard for post harvest treated oysters are much stricter than other states, requiring that Vibrio levels must be less than 3 Vibrio bacteria per gram of oyster while other states have a critera of less than 30.

But now the California Department of Public Health is seeking public comment on a proposed rule change that would still ban raw oysters during the summer months, but would increase the allowable level of microbial Vibrio vulnificus in post-harvest processed Gulf oysters to bring California’s shellfish regulations into alignment with standards adopted by the National Shellfish Sanitation Program and the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference.

All other member states of the ISSC have already adopted the less than 30 standard in post-harvest processed oysters.

The newer standard has been deemed safe since it has been in use from 2005 with no documented Vibrio vulnificus infections associated with raw oysters processed at the less than 30 vibrio count per gram level according to FDA data.

This change is anticipated to increase the amounts and varieties of post-harvest processed oysters imported into California from Gulf states. 

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