When you buy oysters they have to be closed and alive. If you buy them to consume at home and you find some open, discard it.
AP
Two deaths have been recorded in Florida linked to the consumption of raw oysters from Louisiana, one person died in Fort Lauderdale and another in Pensacola from a bacterial infection.
Gary Oreal, who manages the Rustic Inn, toldl South Florida SunSentinel that the man who died had worked in that restaurant years ago.
“Over the course of 60 years, we’ve served a couple billion oysters and nobody’s ever gotten sick like this guy,” Oreal said.
The Florida Department of Health says 26 people have been infected with the bacteria and six of them have died following eating raw shellfish, including oysters, over the course of this year.
In 2021, 10 people died out of 34 sick people. In 2020, there were seven deaths among the 36 who fell ill, reported el canal Local10 News.
Last week, a man in Pensacola died following contracting the bacteria from oysters that he bought in a market, informed the Pensacola News Journal.
Inspectors from the Florida Department of Health searched the restaurant’s kitchen and examined its oyster inventory the day following the man became ill, Oreal told the newspaper.
“We passed with flying colors and were allowed to continue selling oysters,” he said, adding that the others came from Louisiana. “If there was a problem with the oyster farm, we would know regarding it because others would have gotten sick.”
This story was originally published on August 17, 2022 5:00 pm.
