NOAA, FDA to make data public from continuing Gulf seafood tests

28-Mar-2011 - Last updated on 29-Mar-2011 at 10:16 GMT

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) has said it will continue to test seafood from the Gulf of Mexico into the summer, in an effort to convince consumers that seafood from the region is safe to eat.

In conjunction with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the NOAA has been testing and retesting seafood from the Gulf, and it says that thousands of test results show that the seafood is not contaminated with oil or dispersant.

Assistant NOAA administrator in charge of NOAA’s Fisheries Service Eric Schwaab said: “Gulf seafood is consistently passing FDA’s safety tests by a wide margin. We are continuing to test, and we are making the data available to the public, so they can make fully informed purchasing decisions.”

Information on seafood testing in the Gulf, including all test results, is available online here.

In June 2010 the NOAA, FDA and Gulf states agreed on a sampling and testing procedure in the region, and so far the agencies claim that several rounds of tests have found the samples to be safe for consumption. An area covering 1,041 square miles immediately surrounding the wellhead is still closed to all fishing, NOAA said.

Acting deputy director for FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Don Kraemer said: “The system set up to keep tainted seafood out of circulation has worked. Consumers should know that Gulf seafood is extensively tested and is safe to eat.”

In a memo addressed to Fisheries Service officials, Dr. John Stein, deputy director of Northwest Fisheries Science Center, explained that fish such as tuna, snapper and grouper have a high capacity for metabolizing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a major toxic component of oil, meaning that it is not readily stored in their edible muscle tissue. Meanwhile, bivalves such as oysters and clams have a low capacity to metabolize PAHs and shrimp have an intermediate capacity.

Stein concluded that if tested samples indicate seafood safety, “it is very unlikely that there will be an incorrect finding of low risk of human exposure when, in fact, there is an actual risk from PAH exposure.”

On May 2 last year, the NOAA closed about 20 percent of the commercial fishing waters of the Gulf of Mexico following the massive oil spill in the region. The fishing area affected included Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, an area where more than 1bn pounds of fish and shellfish were harvested in 2008, according to government figures.