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Mystery surrounds French oyster ban

Shellfish spat highlights problems with generic safety tests.

A ban on the sale of France's famous Arcachon oysters this August provoked angry demonstrations by oyster farmers, who say that there's no way of proving the shellfish were actually toxic. The controversy has thrown a spotlight on the shortcomings of current safety testing.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones on September 21, 2006 06:17 PM |

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Hi. It is essential that mussels and oysters on the market are safe. The first test should be a chemical test. If that shows too high levels, selling is stopped. If not, use mouse test. This saves a lot of mice and gives sort of a double check
Sincerely
Sven Kollberg

Posted by: Sven Kollberg | September 25, 2006 02:52 PM

There are multiple biotoxins produced by microalgae that can be chemically analyzed if they are the target, but the mouse test will detect any non target toxin. Mouse test is terrible but it saves human lives and food resources.

Posted by: Santiago Fraga | September 27, 2006 08:22 AM

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