Health warning sends Fla. oyster business out to sea

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan 11, 1993 by Jack Hayes

The State of Florida has dumped a proverbial can of worms into the oyster beds that nourish restaurants from Jacksonville to Key West -- and from Naples to Pensacola.

Though it denies malice in the act, the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS) here distributed a mid-December "Health Alert" with the alarming headline, "Seven Die After Eating Raw Oysters."

"Until the warning, our oyster business was going great -- up 30 percent over last year -- but since then it's dropped like a rock," said Jeff Stilwell of Tallahassee-based Barnacle Bill's, a 15-year-old operation that serves between 100 and 200 bushels of these popular crustaceans every week.

Issued as a news release, the HRS alert warned of a growing number of infections coming from contact with a tiny saltwater bacterium known as Vibrio vulnificus --largely hated in Florida despite its microscopic size.

"We've made a lot of (oyster-dependent) people mad," admitted HRS spokesman David Adams. "It's not our goal to destroy an industry -- but when Vibrio activity is high we have to let the people know."

"The potential for infection exists whenever raw oysters are consumed," warned the HRS alert. Newspapers, radio and television news programs across Florida gave it headline coverage.

In response, the Florida Restaurant Association shot off an immediate advisory to its members -- spelling out a serious "liability risk" operators may be assuming if they continue serving raw or partially cooked oysters.

"They've drastically increased the liability risk," said FRA information and education director Robert Nelson. "I don't think HRS weighed the seriousness of what was said in that release."

Vibrio infection attacks people who, knowingly or unknowingly, have liver disease, impaired immuno systems, even low levels of gastric acid -- and leads to severe illness and sometimes death, as the HRS alert glaringly pointed out.

For people at risk the infection is rather simple to get. A person makes contact by swimming with a cut, swallowing surf or eating uncooked seafood taken from contaminated waters. While common in the Atlantic and Pacific, the Vibrio bacteria thrives in the Gulf of Mexico because it likes warmth.

By many standards, however, Vibrio illness is a rarity. In the 10 years between 1981 and 1991, a total of 64 Florida cases were reported, from which 23 people died. In 1992 10 more cases followed -- seven of them resulting in death, according to the HRS alert.

Meanwhile, FRA is fighting an HRS proposal that would mandate Vibrio warning posters in restaurants and seafood markets and at oyster harvesting sites. HRS is asking the Department of Business Regulation which licenses Florida restaurants, as well as the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Natural Resources, to help it draw up the language.

"We'd like to see a point of sale notice similar to that used in California," said Dr. Richard Hopkins, state epidemiologist, on staff with HRS. "We aren't asking for a ban on raw oysters, but we do have a public health responsibility."

While Nelson and Hopkins agree that preventing Vibrio infection is an education issue, they disagree as to who should be doing the teaching. Hopkins believes operators can and must help -- with menu inserts or table tents.

But Nelson and the FRA feel that this approach would open a floodgate.

"If we go along with an oyster warning today, then tomorrow they'll be asking us to warn people about MSG. By the time they're done, we'll have 15 or 20 notices on our menus -- with no more room for food," argued Nelson.

Though operators have reason to worry about this threat, they are focused more on the liability issue now. Some are opting to drop raw oysters from the menu, as Orlando-based Red Lobster did five years ago. Others, such as the Mobile, Ala.-based L & N Seafood Grill, are experimenting with "purified" oysters, which are more expensive.

Yet a few already have begun drafting menu notices that warn guests not to ear raw oysters -- and not to swim -- if they are at risk for Vibrio infection, hoping that this will erase the legal threat.

"We're printing a new menu insert," said Stilwell of Barnacle Bill's. "Vibrio bacteria has been in the water since Jesus walked on it -- but now we're warning people not to go swimming," he added.

Atlanta-based Hooters, a 95-unit beach-themed chain whose menu offers raw and roasted oysters, is trying to decide which way to go on the issue, according to marketing vice president Michael McNeil.

"We're selling half the raw oysters we did [when the first Hooters opened in Clearwater, Fla.] nine years ago. About 60 percent of what we serve today is steamed," McNeil explained. "Now we're looking at the purified oysters and also the possibility of a menu insert."

At least one Florida restaurateur has charged that both HRS and FRA -- in their separate actions on the Vibrio situation -- may be worried as much about their own liability as they are for the health of the public and the industry.