Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the levels of norovirus in shellfish.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is the Central Competent Authority for assessing the food safety risks associated with food, including norovirus in shellfish.

The FSA considered the risks associated with norovirus in shellfish in 2012 when the European Union proposed the introduction of regulatory limits. It concluded that establishing such a limit was not possible due to uncertainties in the evidence base, particularly in interpreting testing data in the absence of an infectious dose or a testing method that determines infectivity.

A five-year FSA-funded research study, NOVAS, published in 2020 has shown that although almost 70% of oysters sold in the United Kingdom were contaminated with detectable levels of norovirus at the point of sale, this contributed 3% of overall norovirus foodborne infection. The FSA continues to monitor developments.