The U.S. Food & Drug Administration is warning restaurants in 10 states to discard any oysters they purchased during the last 17 days from Future Seafoods, Inc., a harvester based on Prince Edward Island in Canada.
The U.S. agency said it was alerted by its Canadian counterpart that the shellfish tested positive for Salmonella bacteria and “unacceptable” levels of possibly harmful E. coli.
Future Seafoods has already voluntarily recalled the Prince Edward oysters it started shipping to restaurants and supermarkets on Oct. 10. The authorities said the recipients were located in Florida, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Maine and Rhode Island.
Neither nation’s food-safety watchdog mentioned whether any consumers have been sickened by the suspect oysters. But they noted the E. coli bacteria detected by Canadian authorities is a concern because of the volume and not because the organisms are of a toxic sort, like E. coli 0157:H7, the variation that can be lethal.
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