Boiled shrimp, fried oysters and grilled fish from the Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana still make delicious — and safe — meals despite a national misperception steering buyers away from local products.
“For the most part, or almost 100 percent, the seafood [from Louisiana] looks really good and clean,” said LSU AgCenter nutritionist Beth Reames. “There’s not really any indication of contamination [from the oil spill], so they’re opening those waters and we’re enjoying the seafood as fast as the fishermen can get out there and get them.”
Industry leaders, University researchers and politicians say Louisiana’s seafood is not just safe to eat, but it also comes from “the most tested food source in the world right now.”
“The question now is how do we get people to understand this product from the Gulf is American, it’s close by and has great flavor,” said Jon Bell, a professor in the Food Science department and an AgCenter researcher. “All the reasons they were buying it before are still true. It’s still safe, and there actually extra levels of assurance now to keep it safe.”
Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, said additional testing and screening are underway not because the integrity of the seafood is in question but to reassure the public the food is safe for consumption.
Smith said his board will meet with BP officials Friday to ask for money for a national marketing campaign to ensure buyers know the food is safe. The board is asking BP for $30 to $40 million a year for as many as the next five years to spread that message using an array of TV and print commercials, some of which will feature celebrity chefs showing the seafood is safe to cook.
“They trampled on our brand, and now we need them to help repair our brand,” Smith said. “I don’t know if we’re going to walk out of that meeting with something or walk out with nothing.”
Smith said it took “at least five years” for the public to trust Alaskan seafood after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, despite a large amount of money being spent to ensure its quality.
Smith said most varieties of seafood are readily available despite a 20 to 30-percent decrease in the number of fishermen harvesting seafood.
He said he is “generally optimistic,” partly because “80 to 90 percent” of commercial fishing areas in the state are open and safe, “the highest number we’ve seen since the spill.”
Bell said numerous federal and state agencies conduct both sensory and analytical tests of the seafood and fishermen are required to prove all catches come from open waters. Smith said these agencies have collected more than 27,000 samples since the spill began.
Monitoring and testing efforts — including preliminary measures — were immediately implemented and have increased since the spill began, Bell said.
Another common misperception about seafood, Bell said, is eating oil-tainted products once will be harmful. The oil doesn’t affect seafood like mercury does, and the risk comes from multiple exposures to seafood with high levels of contaminants during a long period of time.
“The idea of getting sick from one serving is wrong,” he said. “It would have to be completely soaked in oil, and your nose would keep you from eating that. The risk is in long-term consumption of seafood with more contaminants, but there are no concerns or high levels in commercial harvests.”
—-
Contact Nicholas Persac at [email protected]