| Shellfish farming is a major economic activity in the European Union, France being one of the main producing countries. Regulations were introduced to meet society's current expectations in terms of food safety at the fishing, farming and harvesting stages, as weil as during processing and marketing. Toxic algae, pathogens or pollutants may contaminate shellfish products during production and harvesting, partly because of the particular environ mental conditions in which these animais are grown. Monitoring programmes were thus deve/oped to detect the presence of biological and chemical contaminants in coastal waters and in shellfish, and to monitor the food safety of the latter. |
