Health & Safety Update (June 2010)

Water firms blamed for poisoned oysters

The UK's water companies have been accused of contaminating oysters and putting restaurant diners at risk by dumping raw sewage into rivers and the sea.

The number of people suffering food poisoning from oysters has risen dramatically, with 230 becoming ill in just a three-month period, according to new figures.

Britain's oyster industry is worth approximately £30m a year, with the main fisheries in the Thames estuary and on the Essex coast, in the Solent off the Isle of Wight and in the River Fal in Cornwall.

Producers fear their livelihoods are being jeopardised by food poisoning incidents linked to oysters. They point out that norovirus, which contaminates the oysters, originates in humans and so the source must be sewage being discharged into rivers and the sea.

"Some Third World countries use better technology than we do to treat sewage," said David Jarrad, assistant director of the Shellfish Association of Great Britain. "We are as much the victims in this as the consumer."

The Food Standards Agency has written to councils this year warning of an increase in suspected norovirus outbreaks linked to oysters. Its figures for December 2009 to February 2010 show that 32 restaurants and hotels were hit by outbreaks, with 230 people falling ill.

Water companies are allowed to dump raw sewage into rivers and the sea during wet weather to stop it backing up into homes, but oyster producers want to see more investment to limit the amount that is discharged.