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Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Update

Information current as of Monday, May 2, 2011  

 

FDA's Role In Seafood Safety

For Consumers NEW

Reopening of Closed Waters Information by State                          

Assessing the Impact of the Oil Spill

Maps and Images                                                                  
                                              

   

FDA's Role In Seafood Safety

FDA operates a mandatory safety program for all fish and fishery products under the provisions of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, the Public Health Service Act, and related regulations. The FDA program includes research, inspection, compliance, enforcement, outreach and the development of regulations and industry guidance. FDA works closely with NOAA and the states whenever commercial fishing waters are closed for public health reasons and again when they are reopened to harvest.

 

Multi-Government Agency Response to the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

When the Gulf of Mexico oil spill began in 2010, the FDA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Gulf coast states took unprecedented steps to ensure that the seafood harvested from the Gulf was safe -- first by closing areas exposed to the oil and then by establishing a reopening protocol designed to ensure that seafood from any given area was safe from harmful oil and dispersant residues before the area reopened to harvest.

At the height of the oil spill more than one third of the federal waters in the Gulf and much of the state waters were closed to harvesting. After the oil began to dissipate, the states and federal government conducted extensive sampling and testing of fish, shrimp, crabs, and oysters. Only after all samples collected from an area passed both sensory and chemical testing, was a harvest area allowed to reopen.

All of the federal waters and all but a few state harvest waters have reopened and the tests have shown that the seafood from these reopened areas is as safe to eat as it was before the oil spill.

Still, just to be sure that we did not miss anything, federal and state officials continue to collect and test seafood from the Gulf. The seafood we have collected continues to be free from harmful oil and dispersant residues.


Call 1-888-INFO-FDA with questions or concerns about seafood or to report any seafood you have purchased that you suspect of being contaminated with oil.

 

Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, Commissioner of Food and Drug, eats some seafood gumbo in New Orleans.

Photo Courtesy of the New Orleans Times-Picayune
Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, Commissioner of Food and Drug,
eats some seafood gumbo in New Orleans.           

 

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Assessing the Impact of the Oil Spill

Surveillance Samples 

Background on Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) and Testing Methods

Background on Dioctyl Sodium Sulfosuccinate (DOSS) and Testing Methods

Letters, Memos, & Fact Sheets

        
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Maps and Images

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