Oyster experts flee French town after threats
According to the Telegraph newspaper, marine biologists from the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, IFREMER, banned the Arcachon oysters, reputed to be amongst France’s finest, for the seventh time this year and for the fifth year running.
Local government said eating the oysters could cause "gastric problems" and worse in "weakened" people. Angry producers responded with abuse and throwing seashells at the local laboratory last Friday, the newspaper reported.
Some employees have been verbally abused, received telephone threats and sometimes been the target of projectiles, the regional government sub-prefect Pascal Gauci told the Telegraph.
The row is similar to the dispute in Britain when sewage-infested oysters were blamed for 500 diners falling ill at Heston Blumenthal's Michelin three-starred restaurant, The Fat Duck.
The core of the French dispute has been the reliability of a test using laboratory mice. The European Commission sanctioned procedure has been condemned by farmers who claim it is unable to determine if oysters contain toxins potentially harmful to man.
French politicians have rallied in support of the farmers, saying the scientific consensus in favour of replacing the mouse bio-test by chemical tests is going in the right direction.
