AN investigation has been launched after 10 people fell ill after eating oysters at a pub restaurant.

A Brighton and Hove City Council environmental health officer visited The Urchin in Belfast Street, Hove, following a complaint.

The officer said they had no concerns about standards of hygiene at the pub but the investigation is continuing.

The Urchin said it had followed the correct guidelines for storing, handling and preparing oysters and did not think it could have done anything more to prevent the incident.

It has apologised to the customers involved.

The group had visited the pub on Friday evening and ordered 18 oysters as part of their meal, along with a range of starters and main courses plus various beers, wines and spirits.

The party contacted the pub and the city council on Monday after several of them fell ill.

The oysters were among 80 supplied to the pub, which has had no complaints from any other customers.

They came from an original batch of about 4,000, with 400 being distributed to pubs and restaurants across the city.

No other complaints have been received by the suppliers or from any other customers or restaurants.

The pub believes there are three potential causes for the outbreak of illness.

It could be either a localised bug in a small number of oysters that went undetected during the testing process or a combination of oysters and alcohol may have caused a reaction.

Another possibility could be a member of the party may have unknowingly picked up a bug during the day that was inadvertently spread among the group.

Urchin general manager Nick Jerrim said: “From the information available and the investigation to date, it is not possible to know which of these options was the root cause of the illness that the guests suffered.

“Both the environmental health officer and the restaurant head chef and manager believe that they operated within best practice guidelines at all times and could not have done any more to prevent this incident.

“The management are very sorry that their guests were ill after attending the restaurant and have apologised to all of those impacted by this incident, but they do not believe that there was anything further they could have done to prevent this incident.”

A city council spokesman said: “We can confirm we are investigating complaints received from a party who ate at the establishment on Friday.

“We have visited the premises and are satisfied with the standards of hygiene there. Investigations are ongoing.”

In July the restaurant was awarded a maximum five star rating in the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme.