FDA bans Korean shellfish imports Consumers should not eat shellfish from Korea, which has been banned from distribution to retailers nationwide and may soon be recalled, regulators said Thursday. The Food and Drug Administration yanked Korea off its list of certified shellfish shippers on May 1 and informed state health authorities, who said the agency cited concerns about inadequate water pollution controls in Korea's shellfish growing areas. On Thursday, the agency confirmed that it is now unlawful for any retailer or food service operator to obtain any fresh or frozen Korean shellfish - specifically oysters, clams, mussels and scallops. In a message circulated to state public health authorities, the FDA said that the seafood should not be distributed, "pending forthcoming details on what we might reasonably expect could be a fairly extensive recall of the product." The agency stressed states can take any action they deem appropriate. Maryland officials have contacted the one distributor in the state that they know handles Korean shellfish. The distributor put a hold on its products and asked its customers to take the shellfish off store shelves and out of restaurants, said Alan Brench, chief of food emergency response and planning at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Brench estimates that only a small amount of shellfish is affected in Maryland, about 10,000 pounds. We're not aware of any sicknesses at the moment. There have been investigations of illness outbreaks which have been linked back to Korean seafood in the past," Brench said. One would have to extrapolate [from the new ban] that FDA has to be doing some back-checking. In Virginia, public health officials say they're not aware of any related illnesses from Korean seafood, either. The state has contacted its certified dealers and barred them from shipping Korean shellfish, said Robert Croonenberghs, director of the shellfish sanitation division at the Virginia Department of Health. The state has asked the dealers to voluntarily recall the product, and all have agreed to do so, Croonenberghs said. Grocery stores and restaurants have either voluntarily destroyed or stopped selling Korean shellfish pending FDA action. Virginia gets most of its oysters and other shellfish from local growers and other states, Croonenberghs said. But at least one container headed to Virginia with 40,000 pound of frozen Korean oysters was stopped at port. "I'm confident that what's out on the market now is safe," Croonenberghs said. But if somebody has product in their freezer from Korea, don't eat that. The District's Department of Health said it is working on a strategy to deal with the issue.