DORSET Oysters have opened a brand new purification plant in Poole, purifying oysters and shellfish from Poole Harbour.

The new six-tank plant was opened by celebrity chef Mark Hix and can turn out 100,000 oysters a week supplying top restaurants across the country including Rick Steins.

Operating since 2009, Dorset Oysters purifies oysters, clams and cockles that have been grown in Poole Harbour by sister company Othniel Shellfish.

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Having outgrown their previous unit, the company invested £75,000 into a new plant which gives them capacity for 100,000 oysters a week.

Owner Pete Miles said: ““When we originally set this up I had the restaurant in Poole and we were just going to set it up for that and then we decided that the potential is there to do something worthwhile.

“It’s great working with the likes of Mark because he has always been pushing for the locality, seasonality and quality of food.

“It took us a number of months to set up the unit, Gary from Othniel designed all of the tanks and then we designed them to his specification so it’s a bit out there.

“We’re happy with what we’ve got and we can do 100,000 a week which would probably kill us, so we just want to keep that supply up to our regular customers - we can’t let them down.”

Dorset Oysters uses the U.V. method of purifying its shellfish, a process which takes 42-hours, and the tanks must stay on 365-days a year to ensure the high quality of the meat.

Once the shellfish have been purified they are jet washed and boxed by hand before being collected by suppliers or locally delivered as anyone can order small or large quantities straight to their door.