My first oyster

I grew up in England in London. Although not directly next to the coast, one of the things about England is it's tiny size in comparison to many other places, for example the US. In the US you either live by the coast or you don't, if you know what I mean?

So going to the sea and eating fish and chips, laying on the beach in the summer, were not uncommon to me.

My dad was into fishing, being near the coast and also.... seafood. From a young age I remember trying prawns, or shrimps as they are known in the USA. I remember loving prawns and then I progressed to crab sticks, prawnies, cockles, whelks even baby octopus then came the Oyster.

I didn't want to try an oyster but being that they were so popular and the people of Whitstable claiming that theirs where the best in the world, I had to try it.

Looking at the shell with this little lump of slimy stuff made me cautious but I closed my eyes, tipped my head up and shovelled it in. Oops, it stayed in my mouth, I couldn't swallow. So I pushed it out of my mouth and back into the shell. Okay, next try. I added some salt and pepper and got all bad thoughts out of my head. Head back, mouth open, in and.... hooray, down it went.

Oysters are great, they even taste good too! People just need to get the bad ideas out of their head. Like people think all sharks are bad and we are now learning that they are not.

Writing this post makes me want an oyster now, even though it is breakfast time!

Back when I first tried oysters I was unaware of any dangers of eating them. You can get ill from certain bacterias that live on raw seafood, such as Vibrio vulnificus illness. Luckily modern technology has allowed people to develop Post Harvest Processes to reduce the risk of catching bacteria related illnesses from raw seafood.

Gulf Coast oyster processors have developed fantastic new technologies to provide a safer alternative to traditional raw oysters for the at-risk consumer range. These processes still allow the Gulf oysters to be consumed raw but with healthy safety features that reduce Vibrio vulnificus to a non-detectable level.

The post-harvest treatment processes existing on a commercial scale include a mixture of individual quick-freezing (IQF), low heat pasteurization or heat-cool pasteurization (HCP), and high-hydrostatic pressure (HPP) techniques.

Sadly these technologies currently only account for less than 10% of all oyster sales in the United States. An on-going marketing and educational effort aimed at the at-risk consumer is expanding acceptance and making oysters safer for everyone.