The Food and Drug Administration is advising eating places, retailers and customers to watch out with scallops that it believes have been harvested from prohibited waters in Massachusetts.
Federal officers are recommending eating places and meals retailers to not promote complete, reside scallops from Gloucester-based seafood processor and distributor Intershell International Corp., because of contamination considerations after they have been obtained from an unlicensed harvester, in accordance with an FDA advisory Wednesday.
Consumers who might have bought the affected scallops shouldn’t eat them, the FDA advisory warns. Those who might have eaten them and are experiencing signs of meals poisoning are urged to contact their healthcare supplier who will relay the signs to a neighborhood well being division.
The advisory targets companies and customers in Massachusetts, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, and officers mentioned the scallops “may have been distributed further from these states.”
The scallops have been harvested on Dec. 26 and 27, and New Year’s Day, the FDA advisory states.
“Scallops harvested from prohibited waters may be contaminated with human pathogens, toxic elements or poisonous or deleterious substances and can cause illness if consumed,” the advisory states. “Scallops are filter feeders that take away and bioaccumulate micro organism and different pathogens from the water.
“It is not uncommon for shellfish to be consumed raw and whole,” it continues. “Contaminated scallops can cause illness if eaten raw and whole, or with viscera or roe attached, particularly in people with compromised immune systems. Scallops contaminated with pathogens may look, smell, and taste normal.”
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health alerted the FDA final Friday about how the scallops from Intershell International Corp., have been “allegedly harvested from a prohibited area and potentially contaminated” and the way an unlicensed harvester harvested them from prohibited waters.
State well being officers on Tuesday knowledgeable the federal Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference concerning the state of affairs, with different impacted states being notified to conduct “trace forward investigations,” in accordance with the advisory.
“The FDA is awaiting further information on distribution of the scallops and will continue to monitor the investigation and provide assistance to state authorities as needed,” the advisory states.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”