Shrimpers, oystermen say seafood is safe

August 19, 2010 Washington, DC – Three members of the Gulf seafood community testifying before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment told legislators today they still eat Gulf seafood and “feed it to [their] families.”

In response to questions from the Subcommittee chair, Rep. Edward Markey, Mike Voisin of Motivatit Seafoods, Acy Cooper Jr. of the Louisiana Shrimp Association and Dean Blanchard of Dean Blanchard Seafoods all said they eat Gulf seafood and are confident of its integrity.

“The seafood is wholesome and safe and I want Americans to know that,” said Voisin.

“We’re not gonna sell ‘em nuthin’ I wouldn’t eat myself,” said Blanchard.

The shrimpers and oystermen said they we confident enough in their product to not only sell it to consumers but serve it to their own families.

The hearing included testimony from Federal regulators including the Food and Drug Administration, whose acting deputy director at the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Donald Kraemer, said, “We are confident that the program FDA has put together is sufficiently protective… [Gulf seafood] is essentially at the same level of safety as it was before the spill.”

In his testimony Voisin noted, “NOAA and the FDA have collected 5,658 specimens, and NOAA reports that all of its samples have been at least 100 to 1,000 times below the threshold level of concern, so these samples are not just passing – they are passing with a huge margin of safety.”

Voisin is the former Chairman of the National Fisheries Institute and this is his second time testifying before congress since the Gulf oil spill.

For more than 60 years, the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) and its members have provided American families with the variety of sustainable seafood essential to a healthy diet. For more information visit: www.AboutSeafood.com.