{"id":789047,"date":"2026-07-08T21:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/789047\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T21:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:11:09","slug":"food-inspection-agency-warns-of-paralytic-toxin-in-shellfish-in-quebecs-north-shore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/789047\/","title":{"rendered":"Food inspection agency warns of paralytic toxin in shellfish in Quebec’s North Shore"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is warning people in parts of Quebec\u2019s North Shore of the presence of a paralytic biotoxin in mussels, clams, scallops and oysters harvested in some areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tests carried out by the agency earlier this month revealed high concentrations of biotoxins in bivalve shellfish collected in some approved harvesting sectors.<\/p>\n

On July 3, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada posted a warning on Facebook saying consuming this shellfish could cause severe health problems and even death.<\/p>\n

On its shellfish harvesting map \u2014 Shelli <\/a>\u2014 the government outlines, in red, zones where harvesting shellfish is now unauthorized.<\/p>\n

These sites are concentrated between Tadoussac and Forestville, Que., said David Fortin, inspection adviser with CFIA for the food safety program.<\/p>\n

“We don’t monitor every site or every beach \u2026 that exists along the North Shore of the St. Lawrence River, it’s just too wide of a territory. So we have a few sectors that we monitor like every week,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The very best way to prevent shellfish poisoning is to go harvest inside of approved and open harvesting areas.”<\/p>\n

No telltale signs of toxin’s presence<\/p>\n

Part of the risk with this toxin \u2014 one of three causing shellfish poisoning \u2014 is there are no telltale signs or visual indicators of the toxin\u2019s presence, said Fortin.<\/p>\n

The other two toxins outlined by the CFIA<\/a> are diarrhetic shellfish poisoning \u2014 causing nausea vomitting and diarrhea \u2014 and amnesic shellfish poisoning\u00a0\u2014 causing memory loss, nausea, vomiting and disorentiation. <\/p>\n

These toxins are also not destroyed by cooking. The first symptoms of paralytic shellfish poisoning can appear within a few minutes and up to 10 hours after eating a contaminated species.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These symptoms include a tingling sensation or numbness of the lips that gradually spreads to the face and neck, prinkling sensation in the fingers and toes, drowsiness, headaches, dizziness, as well as difficulty swallowing.<\/p>\n

In the most severe cases, muscle paralysis can lead to fatal respiratory arrest.<\/p>\n

Presently, there are no known antidotes to the toxin, says Fortin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said some concentrations of the paralytic toxin could be found in lobster tomalley \u2014 which functions as the crustacean’s liver and pancreas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When you break the tail off of your lobster, there’s sometimes a little bit of a greenish brownish paste,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That’s part of it.”<\/p>\n

He says lobster lovers shouldn’t be too concerned if they happen to eat trace amounts, but advised people not to consume large quantities often.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-789047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}