The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A senior government official yesterday said new guidance on the consumption of raw conch should be issued today just 48 hours after Bahamians were advised not to purchase it.

Dr Patricia Johnson, the Bahamas Agricultural Health and Food Safety Authority’s (BAHFSA) director of food safety and quality, told Tribune Business that fresh guidance on the consumption of raw conch should be forthcoming today and may rescind Monday’s advisory urging consumers to stay away from purchasing or eating raw fresh conch or conch not fully cooked/properly handled.

She said: “We do plan to put out another statement, so between yesterday and today more [information] should be available. I know once the results are in from the Princess Margaret Hospital, we do plan to put out another statement.”

Vendors at Potter’s Cay Dock and Arawak Cay would be among the businesses most affected if the May 17 guidance stands. This was issued following several suspected conch poisoning cases, which are believed to have been caused by the vibrio parahaemolyticus bacteria - the same germ identified as being behind a wave of summer 2018 conch-related illnesses.

Wendi Constantine, president of the Bahamas Dock and Allied Venues Vendors Association, told Tribune Business she was awaiting the issuance of new guidance on the consumption of raw conch. “There is no ban on raw conch. As it stands now, there has been no cases of conch poisoning and vendors can sell conch,” she asserted. “I guess you can wait until BAHFSA sends out their release. I suggest you wait and see that.”

BAHFSA’s Monday guidance said consumers should not purchase or consume any raw (fresh) conch or conch they suspect was not properly handled and/or fully cooked until the source of the contamination can be determined. It also warned that tests at PMH are ongoing and, in the meantime, urged all conch vendors to discontinue the preparation of raw conch.

Rodney Russell, the Arawak Cay Association’s president, said he would be puzzled if BAHFSA gives new guidance that conflicts with their earlier advisory on raw conch.

He said: “I have not heard anything on any new advisory on eating raw conch, because the relevant authority said that they would ask the public to cease eating raw content until the problem has been sorted out.”

Arawak Cay has been hit particularly hard, with less than 25 percent of vendors selling conch salad days after reports of conch poisoning became known.

Mr Russell added: “I advised my people to stop and to discontinue making conch salad, but you know you have these people from the western tip of Hispaniola, they don’t care. They only want to make a living and they don’t care what happens.

“But I think the public has been sensitised in seeing what the conch is doing at this time. I have stopped selling conch and I have advised all of my people to not even eat conch right now.”