A WEST Cork shellfish company which was the subject of a European food safety alert, is at the centre of another alert in north America, following two cases of suspected food poisoning in Washington state.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned consumers in north American against eating "certain frozen cooked mussel products made by Bantry Bay Seafoods, imported from Ireland" as they may be contaminated with azaspiracid toxins (AZA).
AZA toxins are naturally occurring, and are known to cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and stomach cramps.
Last April, the European Commission issued a rapid food safety alert relating to Bantry Bay Seafoods mussel products, following reports of illness among consumers in France. This was followed in early May by a Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSA) alert, when it emerged that some alleged contaminated batches were also sold on the market here through the Aldi supermarket chain.
The Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) is still investigating the cause of those cases of alleged contamination, and said it could not comment yesterday on the FDA alert.
However, it is understood that the SFPA has challenged the need for a recall of the specific batch in the US, based on "available facts".
In a letter sent to the FDA on August 14th, the SFPA says that the mussels were produced from an area where no toxin had been detected under the national testing programme, and the chemical analysis performed by the US authorities on a suspect batch indicated a concentration of toxin below that which can cause disease.
The batches identified by the FSAI here were batch code 21F1, with a production date of January 31st, 2007, and best before date of January 31st, 2009, (frozen mussels in white wine sauce), and batch code 26A1, with a production date of August 1st, 2007, and best before date of February 2nd, 2009 (frozen mussels in garlic butter).
The FDA says that two people in Washington state became ill in July after eating Bantry Bay Seafoods mussels in garlic butter sauce. An unopened portion from the same production lot was tested by the FDA. Bantry Bay Seafoods was unavailable for comment on the alert yesterday.
