Shellfish monitoring contracts for 2012

06 February 2012

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has awarded contracts for services to support the official control shellfish monitoring programme in Scotland. New contracts, which will commence on 2 April 2012, are being developed with the successful bidders.

For some of the services, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) will lead a partnership comprising of the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), the Shetland Seafood Quality Control (SSQC), the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) and the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI).

Activities cover sample collection, biotoxin analysis, phtoplankton monitoring, E. coli analysis, sampling and analysis for chemical contaminants and inspections of depuration facilities. Sanitary surveys will be retendered in February.

More information on the FSA website: http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2012/jan/shellfish