At the time of the development of Standard 4.2.1 Primary Production and Processing Standard for Seafood in Chapter 4 of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code there was uncertainty regarding the presence of algal toxin in pearl oyster meat and therefore in the ranking of the risks associated with this product. Research published in 2009 indicates that there is no accumulation of biotoxins in the pearl oyster adductor muscles.
The research is described in Murray SA et al., (2009) Differential accumulation of paralytic shellfish toxins from Alexandrium minutum in the pearl oyster, Pinctada imbricata, Toxicon 54 (3): 217-223. The research contributes to the original premise that it is not necessary to include pearl oyster adductor muscle as a higher risk product in Standard 4.2.1. In other words, pearl oyster adductor muscle remains excluded from the requirements applying to bivalve molluscs under Division 3 Specific requirements for bivalve molluscs of Standard 4.2.1.
Final Assessment Report - 23 March 2005 [ word I pdf 1857kb ]
Draft Asssessment Report - 26 May 2004 [ pdf 1509kb ]
Initial Assesment Report - 18 December 2002 [ html I pdf 340kb ]