Whilst not an American oyster expert, I can profess to know quite a bit
about UK ones. I suspect your friendly chef was getting a little confused
between irradiation and purification. UV light is used to kill off the
bacteria in the water in a controlled purification system. The oysters
themselves do not come into contact with the UV.
The use of the terminology pasteurised I suspect is quite wrong and was his
attempt to try and inform his customers that the oysters had been treated
and were safe to eat.
Having said this, the oysters could still contain viruses that are not
removed by purification. Thus water control is quite important in the
harvesting areas. You cannot simply purify heavily polluted oysters and
expect them to be safe.
If you need to know more about purification please drop me a line and I will
explain it in more detail.
Chris Leftwich
Chief Inspector, Billingsgate London
-----Original Message-----
From: ruelloinc@wr.com.au <ruelloinc@wr.com.au>
To: seafood@ucdavis.edu <seafood@ucdavis.edu>
Date: 22 June 2000 06:02
Subject: Any USA Oyster experts
>Could someone out there help me? I was recently in Joe's in South
>Beach Miami, Florida (USA) and noticed the sign they had regarding the
>risk of eating raw oysters. This sign is of great interest to me ,
>being from Australia. Notwithstanding the sign, the chef there told me
>that the oysters were infact "irradiated" . The menu described them as
>"pasteurised". I was and am very confused.
>
>My question is: 1. would the oysters be irradiated? If so, wouldn't
>they then be safe to eat, and hence, why the cautionary sign?
>
>2. What does the term "pasteruised" mean in relationship to raw oysters?
>
>I would really appreciate an answer as consumption of raw oysters is big
>business in NSW - the Australian state in which I reside.
>
>Yours sincerely,
>
>Judith Woods
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jun 22 2000 - 04:46:02 PDT