Why are oysters safe to eat in hot summer months?

A look at why you can eat some oysters in 100 degree weather while others will make you sick as a dog.

Photo by David Todd McCarty on Unsplash

Oysters are my favorite food. Raw on the half shell with a slice of lemon and my local oyster bar’s cucumber mignonette, broiled with a sweet and sour sauce and served by the ocean, or roasted with a little garlic and butter, I’ll eat my fill any day of the week. I have been known to eat more than a few dozen in a single sitting, only stopping when my wallet is empty.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, oysters are a year-round delicacy thanks to plentiful local oyster farms in the Hood Canal south of Seattle. Hama Hama Oysters and Taylor Shellfish are two relatively well-known oyster farmers nearby, each shipping oysters year-round to a number of locations in the PNW and the rest of the US.

An image of my face when I get to eat my weight in oysters. (Image source: me, oyster source: Hama Hama Oyster Co.)

Every summer I make a point to order a few dozen oysters shipped directly to my front door and host a little oyster-eating party with my friends. Typically when I put in my order, it’s right smack dab in Seattle’s warmest month of August, with temperatures reaching the 70s-80s daily. The oysters ship on ice, and overnight, but I often stop to wonder why I’m…