Britain’s food watchdog has been criticised by MPs for the way it has treated the shellfish industry.

The Food Standards Agency was condemned for its handling of a row over scientific testing for toxins in shellfish.

MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee called for workers to be compensated for losses of wages caused by the decision to close cockle beds over fears of high toxin levels.

The agency ordered the move after testing procedures found toxins that cause food poisoning.

As a result the FSA recommended a series of closures enforced by local councils.

But there were no reports of people being poisoned as a result of eating shellfish that was not recalled and MPs concluded "there is no true threat to public health".

It was later discovered that drawbacks had been found in testing methods - which MPs described as "both astonishing and unacceptable".

FSA too slow

MPs concluded that the FSA had been too slow in investigating alternative explanations. As a result consumers had been put off and the industry had been damaged.

One firm had told the committee that the FSA’s closure recommendations had led to the loss of 75 jobs and hit a profitable export market.

"The shellfish and cockle industries are neither big nor powerful but should not have been treated in the way that they have been by the Food Standards Agency," said MP Austin Mitchell who led the report.

"It has used the precautionary principle and its commitments to science to disguise the fact that it has neither examined its own scientific methods nor consulted the industry before inflicting very real and unnecessary damage."