U.S. bans imports of green-lipped mussel

Press, 27 November 1980, Page 2

U.S. bans imports of green-lipped mussel

PA Blenheim Marlborough mussel fanners and processors could be seriously affected by an American ban on the import of New Zealand’s green-lipped mussel. -An extract from the Marlborough - farmed mussel is said to help arthritic sufferers, and the Food and Drug Administration in the United States has ruled that the extract manufactured by Macfarlane Laboratories, Auckland, will not be imported. Macfariane Laboratories is the main outlet for Consolidated Fisheries at Blenheim.

The manager, Mr George Pickering, said yesterday that the ban

would have an effect on the Blenheim factory which is on contract to a Nelson packhouse.

Consolidated Fisheries consigns 12 tonnes o: mussel meat to Macfarlam Laboratories a week anc its only other outlet is a South Island-based company which receives five tonnes a month.

Mr Pickering said the factory employed more than 70 people working two shifts.

The manager of Macfarlane Laboratories, Mr Stuart Macfarlane, said that the temporary restraining order on the mussels had been imposed so that the product could be tested.

The F.D.A. felt that

mussels should be classified as a therapeutic substance or drug and the mussels could not be sold in America until this had been established. Mr Macfariane said his company contested this, and would be making representations to the F.D-A. in support of the company’s contention that niussels w'ere a food supplement.. If the mussel was classified as a drug then stringent tests on the New Zealand food would have to take place before it could go on the American market. “It is debatable whether the mussels would meet their criteria,” Mr Macfarlane said.