Scottish Shellfish Marketing Group withdraws 1kg nets of live mussels
Monday 11 September 2006
Food Alert: for Information
Ref: 42/2006 (44/2006: Scotland)
Scottish Shellfish Marketing Group has withdrawn a batch of its own 1 kg nets of live mussels due to the presence of paralytic shellfish poison (PSP) above statutory limits.
PSP is a marine biotoxin which can cause illness in humans who consume molluscan shellfish (oysters, cockles, clams, mussels and scallops). PSP is known to be severe in symptoms compared to other known marine toxins and while outbreaks have been very few in the UK and Europe there have been some fatal cases.
The Scottish Shellfish Marketing Group has undertaken a trade withdrawal of the batch. This batch was supplied to Asda, Morrisons and Tesco who have all withdrawn the batch from sale. Point-of-sale notices have been displayed in stores. The Scottish Shellfish Marketing Group issued a press release on Friday 8 September. These notices alerted customers to the withdrawal and advise them of actions they should take if they have purchased the affected batch.
The affected batch is:
1 kg nets of live mussels and the batch can be identified by the code M29 on the packaging
The affected batch was on sale in stores between the 4 and 6 September 2006 and has a shelf life of up to 10 September 2006.
No other shellfish batch is known to be affected.