Please be advised that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has aligned its laboratory testing of marine toxins in whole scallops to ensure procedures are carried out consistently at the national level.
In the past, for some of the larger scallop species in British Columbia, testing was carried out on both the adductor muscle and the viscera (digestive tissue) with separate results for each tissue reported in the Record of Analysis (ROA). The Health Canada guideline for edible tissue has been interpreted in scallops as being specific to the adductor muscle. The CFIA will now interpret edible tissue in scallops as being the form in which the scallops are marketed to consumers. Given this, CFIA laboratories will now test scallops in the manner that they are received. If samples are received as whole scallops (adductor and viscera), then they will be tested whole, if a sample is received as only the adductor muscle, they will be tested as such.
This approach is consistent with how scallops are tested nationwide and provides increased clarity when interpreting results.
