Cooking shellfish safely in your food business.

This article has been written by Pilla Founder, Liam Jones, click to email Liam directly, he reads every email.

Shellfish will require extra care during storage, handling, preparation and serving and steps must be taken to ensure that do not present a risk to consumers. Staff must follow the safety points below to ensure a consistent level of food safety is maintained.

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; that 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.

1/ only an oyster knife must be used for opening, no other type of utensil must be used.

2/ ensure that oysters are tightly closed, if not, they must be discarded.

3/ the outside surface of the oyster shell should be scrubbed with a brush before serving.

4/ 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.

5/ 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.

6/ once opened discard the top part of the shell and remove any broken shell particles.

7/ gently prise the oyster off the shell, then place the oyster back onto the shell.

8/ check that the oyster juices do not look milky in colour or contain any blood.

9/ serve the oysters immediately after they have been checked.

Fresh mollusc policy (regarding delivery, acceptance of delivery, storage and handling procedures)

1/ check the temperature of the products upon delivery, this must not exceed 5°c, the products must be covered in ice.

2/ there must be sufficient shelf life available on the products otherwise refuse delivery.

3/ the shellfish must be accompanied by their tags at all times, check delivery notes against the tags and keep all paperwork together.

4/ do not accept delivery if the above conditions are not met.

5/ do not leave molluscs at room temperatures, apart from a quick turnaround to service when preparing them.

6/ do not sit molluscs in any water, fresh or salted, dead ones can produce toxins which can be released into water contaminating other molluscs.

7/ 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.

8/ follow the production date labelling procedure i.e. Giving the products a 2-day shelf life from day of delivery, then discard if unused.

9/ ensure the cold chain has been maintained through the two days of storage at a maximum of 5°c, but preferably below.

10/ 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.

11/ 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.

12/ 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.

13/ 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).

14/ any molluscs that have been kept in glass display fridges can only be used for hot cooked dishes.

15/ all molluscs must be tightly closed any open ones must be discarded. If unsure then it is safer to discard them.

Corrective actions if things go wrong

• •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.