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Loading...FDA Declares Gulf Seafood Safe to Eat
Seafood from some parts of the Gulf of Mexico affected by the BP oil spill has been declared safe to eat, but do you want it on your dinner table?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced its support for the states of Mississippi, Florida, and Louisiana as they reopen state waters to commercial fishing.
“Through close coordination with our state and federal partners, we are confident all appropriate steps have been taken to ensure that seafood harvested from the waters being opened today is safe and that Gulf seafood lovers everywhere can be confident eating and enjoying the fish and shrimp that will be coming out of this area.”
Margaret A. Hamburg, Commissioner of Food and Drugs, also said:
“I have heard first-hand from commercial fishermen and seafood processors about not only the importance of getting back to their livelihoods, but also their commitment to protecting the health of their customers and making sure consumers have the most up-to-date and accurate information available.”
On the FDA’s Q & A page, the safety of seafood harvested in the Gulf Coast since the BP oil disaster and the use of dispersants in the area is addressed as follows.
“There is no reason to believe that any contaminated product has made its way to the market.
Available information indicates that the dispersants being used to combat the oil spill do not accumulate in seafood and therefore there is no public health concern from them due to seafood consumption. FDA will continue to monitor the use of dispersants and evaluate any changes in their use or composition.”
According to an Associated Press (AP) story, even some Gulf fishermen are questioning the safety of Gulf seafood.
“If I put fish in a barrel of water and poured oil and Dove detergent over that, and mixed it up, would you eat that fish?” asked Rusty Graybill, an oysterman and shrimp and crab fisherman from Louisiana’s St. Bernard Parish. “I wouldn’t feed it to you or my family. I’m afraid someone’s going to get sick.”
Sign the Petition: Tell the FDA to Come Clean About Gulf Seafood
The safety of the Gulf’s seafood is in question because of the prolonged use of chemical dispersants on oil flowing out of the Deepwater Horizon oil well.
A study from Imperial College in London earlier this month revealed that oil spills can block the ocean’s natural ability to filter arsenic out of seawater. As these levels rise, the poison can enter the marine ecosystem and become more concentrated as it moves up the food chain. And samples of crab larvae from the area tested positive for hydrocarbons.
Consumers deserve to know the safety of the food they eat and what the FDA is doing to regulate the safety of seafood from the Gulf. Sign the Petition
Read more: bp oil spill, chemical dispersant, fda, food safety, gulf, health policy, healthcaretmc, margaret a. hamburg
Photo: photoxpress.com
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Great discovery!, and a very interesting article. Thank you.
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158 comments
+ add your owni would not eat it not with all that oil
I agree with Kristi O.
The FDA doesn't know healthy from not. They are in the pocket with the 'rich guys.' Just them saying the food was ok will not work for me.
I've seen shell creatures with black stuff inside of their shells. Yuck !
Gee, interesting how the oil disaster has all but disappeared from the news. Out of sight, out of mind? BP and the feds have a lot of work to do before I am comfortable with the situation.
This doesn't pass the sniff test!
This is good reason to NOT sign the petition to pass the food safety bill, S.510!
sure
If its safe thenwhy not
So many people and their livelihoods are affected that it may seem like a difficult "call" for the EPA, but what they need to do is BE HONEST. People getting sick or dying could be the result of their waivering and/or playing with results of the testing. --BP MUST BE MADE TO PAY THOSE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN AFFECTED, SO THAT NO MATTER WHAT THE EPA FINDINGS ARE, THE PEOPLE AFFECTED CAN GO ON WITH THEIR LIVES AND BE FINANCIALLY SECURE.
Interesting post. I pass on the sea food from the gulf.
It's amazing how hysterical people get about the FDA, yet they're making the same fallacies on the opposite side. It's the old argument about being more comfortable with known unknowns than with unknown unknowns. Overall, there's not much of a difference.
A few posts below, I did the math to gauge a super-high estimate of the actual contamination. I hope no one took it as support for the FDA. They still have a lot to answer for as far as what they consider "safe." Still, we consume plenty more contamination than a full barrel's worth of my calculation, just by breathing for a few hours, even in the cleanest parts of the country.
We need to have a little more trust in common sense. Someone commented that we should wait for the "real fishermen" to give their opinion on the matter. I never knew there were any "fake" fishermen. Or that any of them would be dumb enough to go fishing in the obviously contaminated areas, when a huge part of the gulf is still unaffected.
That being said, we still need better testing standards. An entire cargo of thousands could be clean, except for the one fish that survived swimming through a tarball a week earlier. That's the one that will make someone sick.
And I would love to see all the BP spokespeople and government officials who claim that it's safe sit down and prove it on national television. Not as proof, but as payment in dignity, because I have a feeling most of them haven't done the math well enough to believe their own word
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