E. coli Measurements in Shellfish Flesh from England and Wales, 1992-2022

Official Control shellfish samples collected monthly from approximately 400 sites across England and Wales by local authority officers. The samples were analyzed for *E. coli* in shellfish flesh by Official Control laboratories, with results reported to the Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas). This data is used to classify shellfish harvesting areas and is viewable on the Cefas website.

Use Cases

• Classifying shellfish harvesting areas based on *E. coli* levels mentioned in the description.
• Analyzing long-term trends in coastal water quality based on the 30-year monitoring period.
• Mapping contamination risks across England and Wales based on the approximately 400 sampling sites.
• Validating predictive models for bacterial contamination using the official control laboratory results.

Strengths

• Data spans a 30-year period from 1992 to 2022, enabling long-term trend analysis.
• Samples collected from approximately 400 sites, providing broad geographic coverage of England and Wales.
• Data is collected under the Official Control framework, suggesting a standardized and regulated methodology.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas), via the Government Digital Service and eu_open_data platform.

Collection Method

Monthly collection of shellfish samples by local authority officers, with analysis in Official Control laboratories.

Time Range

1992 - 2022

Freshness

Data collection appears ongoing, but the last update date is unknown.

Geography

England and Wales