Mussel firm fined for minor breach of food regulations

Blueshell Mussels admitted some of its registration documents were either not properly filled in or were missing altogether when environmental health officers visited its Brae premises in June 2009, Shetland Times reports.

Lerwick Sheriff Court heard today that management at Blueshell had not enjoyed the most “harmonious” of relationships with the council’s environmental health department, the news source wrote.

Environment officials believed Blueshell had breached protocol issued by Food Standards Agency Scotland – although Blueshell disagreed with that interpretation.

Three documents were missing from mussel batches which had been delivered to the factory from growing sites during November 2008 and May 2009. Other documents were left blank or had inaccurate information.

Procurator fiscal Duncan MacKenzie said the relationship between environmental health and Blueshell was now “much improved” and that it was unlikely there would be any further difficulties, the news source wrote.