Taiwan monitors Oyster scare

TAIWAN may remove certain South Korean seafood products from store shelves after the US Food and Drug Administration warned that they may be contaminated with noroviruses. The Department of Health (DOH) has started inspecting each batch of imported shellfish from South Korea.

“Since June 9, we have begun to check oyster and shellfish imports from South Korea batch by batch,” said Tsai Shu-chen, a section chief of the department’s Food and Drug Administration. However, according to Tsai, so far only one 100kg batch of shellfish from South Korea is awaiting customs clearance and is being inspected.

Tsai adds that local health authorities have temporarily sealed imported oysters from South Korea, which amounted to 114,210 oysters in 7,204 boxes.

To date, 24 people have reportedly experienced nausea, vomiting, abdominal pains and diarrhea after eating such products from South Korea at Eatogther chain restaurants since late May.

Initial investigations showed that the problem was caused by eating raw oysters from South Korea. Inspections at the three Eatogether restaurants in Taipei and those in Greater Taichung also found sanitation problems in the kitchen, including a pileup of waste and inadequate refrigeration.

“The DOH has begun an epidemiological study of the cases,” Tsai said.

She also said that if the food poisoning is related to contaminated South Korean shellfish reported to have been exported to the US, the department is not ruling out pulling South Korean shellfish from shelves.

Source: Taipei Times

Category: Health alert