How I Use the Shellfish Products Template with Customers in Pilla

I'm Liam Jones, NEBOSH-qualified health and safety consultant, Level 3 Food Safety, and founder of Pilla. This is how I approach shellfish products policies in a food safety management system, based on close to twenty years in frontline operations and advising hundreds of businesses on compliance. You can email me directly; I read every email.

Shellfish is the product category where I see the widest gap between what kitchens think they're doing and what's actually happening. I've walked into restaurants with mussels sitting in a bucket of tap water because someone thought they were "keeping them fresh." Fresh water kills them. And a single dead mussel in standing water can release toxins that contaminate every other mollusc in the batch.

The template, the storage method, the viability checks: none of it is complicated. But shellfish deteriorate fast, the traceability requirements are stricter than most other proteins, and the consequences of getting it wrong land people in hospital. This article covers what your shellfish products policy needs to include, gives you a template you can edit for your own operation, and breaks down the parts that matter most when your EHO turns up.

Key Takeaways

  • What are shellfish products in food safety? Shellfish products covers crustaceans and molluscs, which need dedicated procedures for storage, handling, preparation, and service. Unlike other proteins, many shellfish are kept alive until cooking, and dead shellfish can produce toxins that contaminate a whole batch
  • Why do you need a shellfish products policy? Regulation (EC) 852/2004 requires food businesses to control biological hazards, and shellfish carry specific risks including norovirus, hepatitis A, and algal biotoxins. Your EHO will check supplier traceability, health ID tags, and storage methods
  • How do you set it up in Pilla? Use the knowledge hub template below, edit it to match your operation, and share it with your team through the app so everyone has access and you can track who's read it
  • How do you automate the follow-up? Set up Poppi to chase staff who haven't acknowledged the policy and flag when it's due for review

Article Content

Understanding What's Required of You

Shellfish products means crustaceans and molluscs. They need extra care at every stage: delivery, storage, handling, preparation, and service. The reason is simple. Many shellfish are kept alive until you cook or serve them, and dead shellfish can cause food poisoning. That makes this category fundamentally different from other proteins on your menu.

The biological risks are serious. Bacteria multiply quickly in shellfish left at ambient temperatures and can survive undercooking. Dead molluscs produce toxins that leach into surrounding water and contaminate live ones in the same container. Beyond bacteria, shellfish carry risks from norovirus, hepatitis A, and algal biotoxins, all of which trace back to the harvesting waters and the supply chain before the product reaches your kitchen.

Regulation (EC) 852/2004 requires food businesses to identify and control biological hazards, and shellfish fall squarely into that. In practice, your EHO is looking at four things: where you source your shellfish, whether you have health ID tags and delivery documentation, how you store live products, and whether your team knows how to check viability before cooking or serving. Health ID tags are a legal requirement for traceability. If a customer falls ill from shellfish, you need to be able to identify exactly which batch they consumed and trace it back to the harvesting bed.

I've seen the traceability question catch businesses out more than anything else. The tags arrive with the delivery, get tossed in a drawer, and nobody can find them two weeks later when an EHO asks. That's a compliance failure, and it's entirely avoidable.

Setting It Up as a Knowledge Hub Entry

I've built a shellfish products template in Pilla covering supplier requirements, live storage procedures, viability checks for mussels and oysters, the full oyster opening procedure, the fresh mollusc policy, service fridge management, and corrective actions. It gives you a structured starting point, but you need to edit it to reflect your actual operation.

In the knowledge hub, create a new entry and tag it with "Food Safety Management System". Use the same tag across all of your food safety policies so they are grouped together and Poppi can track them as a set. Assign the entry to all teams so that everyone in the business can access it.

The template is designed to be edited, not just filed. If you don't serve oysters, remove the oyster opening procedure. If you use pre-cooked shellfish from approved suppliers, keep that section and add your supplier details. If your storage setup differs from the perforated gastronorm method described, update it to match what you actually do. The EHO wants to see that your policy reflects your operation.

Knowledge Hub Template·Shellfish Products

Shellfish products (crustaceans and molluscs) will require extra care during storage, handling, preparation and serving and steps must be taken to ensure that they do not present a risk to consumers.

Staff must follow the safety points below to ensure a consistent level of food safety is maintained.

Safety points

Suppliers

  • Shellfish must only be purchased from reputable and approved suppliers only
  • All packages of live shellfish must be delivered with the health/id tags
  • The tags and delivery notes must be retained for the purposes of due diligence and traceability
  • Ensure the date of delivery is recorded to allow you to trace a particular delivery if and when required
  • Reputable approved suppliers of shellfish should provide written assurances that products have been handled and stored correctly and products have been harvested from approved beds/areas only

Storage

  • Live clams, mussels and oysters must not be stored in water or in an airtight container in the fridge
  • Container must be dry and well ventilated
  • Note: storing shellfish in fresh water will kill them, storing in salt water will shorten their shelf life, dead shellfish can contaminate live shellfish

Mussels

  • Ensure that mussels are checked on receipt from the supplier, dead mussels can cause food poisoning if consumed, discard any dead ones
  • Check mussels when preparing them, mussels that do not close when tapped and any mussels that remain closed after cooking must be discarded

Oysters

  • Check each oyster during preparation, ensuring that they are tightly closed, also ensuring that any oyster juices do not contain any blood or look milky in colour
  • Discard any dead oysters as consumption can cause food poisoning

Service

  • Shellfish should only be removed from refrigerated storage immediately prior to serving, only removing the required number of shellfish at any one time
  • Bacteria can survive in shellfish left at ambient temperatures and can also survive when shellfish are undercooked
  • Ensure that shellfish such as mussels and prawns change colour and texture during the cooking process

Using pre-cooked shellfish

  • Pre-cooked frozen shellfish can reduce the risk of food poisoning, they must only be supplied by approved suppliers with robust HACCP procedures in place
  • These products must be stored correctly following manufacturer's instructions strictly
  • They must be reheated to correct temperatures and temperatures checked before serving

Oyster opening procedure

Oysters must only be opened on demand, they must never be opened in advance and held in a fridge.

  • Only an oyster knife must be used for opening, no other type of utensil must be used
  • Ensure that oysters are tightly closed, if not, they must be discarded
  • The outside surface of the oyster shell should be scrubbed with a brush before serving
  • Place the appropriate chopping board onto the bench, secure the chopping board and rest the oyster round side down onto a cloth to prevent the oyster slipping when opening
  • Place the point of the oyster knife into the joint of the shell at the pointed end, taking extreme care, push the knife into the joint and twist the knife slightly to pop open the oyster
  • Once opened discard the top part of the shell and remove any broken shell particles
  • Gently prise the oyster off the shell, then place the oyster back onto the shell
  • Check that the oyster juices do not look milky in colour or contain any blood
  • Serve the oysters immediately after they have been checked

Fresh mollusc policy

Regarding delivery, acceptance of delivery, storage and handling procedures:

  • Check the temperature of the products upon delivery, this must not exceed 5°c, the products must be covered in ice
  • There must be sufficient shelf life available on the products otherwise refuse delivery
  • The shellfish must be accompanied by their tags at all times, check delivery notes against the tags and keep all paperwork together
  • Do not accept delivery if the above conditions are not met
  • Do not leave molluscs at room temperatures, apart from a quick turnaround to service when preparing them
  • Do not sit molluscs in any water, fresh or salted, dead ones can produce toxins which can be released into water contaminating other molluscs
  • Storage should be achieved by sitting products in a perforated gastronorm covered in ice, this container in turn is sat in a larger gastronorm, melt water from ice can drain through the smaller perforated container into the larger container keeping the products safe
  • Follow the production date labelling procedure i.e. Giving the products a 2-day shelf life from day of delivery, then discard if unused
  • Ensure the cold chain has been maintained through the two days of storage at a maximum of 5°c, but preferably below
  • These products must not be frozen under any circumstances, they must be kept on ice and checked regularly. The melt water must be removed regularly to avoid molluscs sitting in melt water
  • Before serving any molluscs the shells must be scrubbed; a red nail brush should be allocated for this task. Any barnacles or beards must be removed before serving these products
  • Temperatures of service fridges can rise during busy periods, to avoid problems with molluscs only hold minimal amounts of product at any one time within these fridges. Only place the molluscs in the fridge 30 minutes before they are needed
  • When molluscs are held in service fridges they should be held in suitable water tight containers and kept cold using ice packs above and below (you can use gel packs supplied with fish)
  • Any molluscs that have been kept in glass display fridges can only be used for hot cooked dishes
  • All molluscs must be tightly closed any open ones must be discarded. If unsure then it is safer to discard them

Corrective actions

  • Inform head chef if supplier does not follow strict protocols regarding delivery i.e. Temperature, transit conditions, use by dates, health id tags etc.
  • Review supplier if strict protocols for delivery are not met
  • Shellfish not stored or handled correctly must be discarded
  • Food that has become cross contaminated must be discarded. If cross contamination has just occurred the food may be usable if cooked or reheated immediately
  • Refer to allergies and food intolerances safe methods
  • If staff do not follow the above safety points, then retrain them and increase supervision until competency can be shown

Record keeping

  • Record any instances of food borne illness or allegations of food poisoning / allergic reaction
  • Record any contraventions of any of the above safety points in the kitchen records, record any corrective actions taken
  • Record any instances of training or retraining

This is a preview of the template. In Pilla, you can edit this to match your business.

What I'd want to see when reviewing this:

The supplier and traceability section is the foundation. I'd want to see that you're buying from approved suppliers who provide written assurances about harvesting areas and handling. Health ID tags must accompany every delivery of live shellfish, and you need a system for retaining those tags alongside delivery notes. Record the date of delivery so you can trace any batch if illness occurs.

The storage section matters more than most people realise. Live clams, mussels, and oysters must not be stored in water, fresh or salt, and must not be in an airtight container. The perforated gastronorm method (product on ice in a perforated tray, sitting inside a larger solid tray so meltwater drains away) is the standard approach. I'd want to see that meltwater is being removed regularly, because if it builds up, your molluscs end up sitting in water anyway.

The viability checks are non-negotiable. For mussels: tap any that are open, and discard any that don't close. After cooking, discard any that remain closed. For oysters: check they're tightly closed, and check the juices aren't milky or bloody. These checks should be happening every time, not just when someone remembers.

Common mistakes I see:

The most common mistake is storing live shellfish in water. I've seen it in kitchens that should know better. Fresh water kills molluscs outright. Salt water seems logical, but dead shellfish release toxins into the water and contaminate the rest of the batch. The template is clear on this: do not sit molluscs in any water, fresh or salted.

The second is ignoring the 2-day shelf life rule. The template specifies a 2-day shelf life from day of delivery, then discard if unused. I regularly find shellfish in fridges with no date label, no way to tell when it arrived. That's a food safety incident waiting to happen.

The third is the oyster opening procedure. Oysters must only be opened on demand. I've walked into kitchens where oysters have been shucked an hour before service and left sitting in a fridge. The template lays out a nine-step procedure for a reason: scrub the shell, check it's tightly closed, use an oyster knife (nothing else), check the juices, serve immediately. Skipping steps or opening in advance creates risk that's easy to avoid.

Automate the Follow-Up with Poppi

Writing the policy is one thing. Making sure your team has actually read it is another. Poppi can handle the chasing so you don't have to.

If you mark the knowledge hub entry as mandatory, Poppi will track who's read it and who hasn't. You can set up automations to chase staff who are behind, notify managers when someone completes the policy, and get a regular report showing where the gaps are.

Here are three automations I'd set up for any knowledge hub policy:

Overdue training reminders

Automatically chase team members who have mandatory policies they haven't read yet. Poppi sends the reminder so you don't have to.

Poppi
Poppi

Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge

Video completion alerts

Get notified when a team member finishes reading or watching a policy, so you can track progress without chasing.

Poppi
Poppi

Emma has completed a mandatory policy

Training gap analysis

Get a regular AI report showing which team members are behind on mandatory policies and where the gaps are across your team.

Poppi
Poppi

Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.