La surveillance sanitaire officielle des coquillages en France

The present communication summarizes the principles of shellfish producing areas monitoring for food safety in France and also sets out the ground for classifying production areas using E. coli criterion as a fecal contamination marker. A comprehensive monitoring of the classified areas is set in France including the major risk caused by phycotoxins. Alerts are rather scarse and so are the diseases caused by the ingestion of shellfish. Among key questions are the inclusion of other hazards in the surveillance scheme as well as the means to tackle emerging issues such as climatic change and long -distance transportation of exotic algae, for instance in ship ballasts.