Honesty in seafood labeling law advances in MS for restaurants. Here’s what’s next
Mississippi consumers would know whether their seafood and crawfish are domestic or foreign under a law the House unanimously passed Monday, months after two Biloxi businesses pleaded guilty in a federal case to selling foreign fish as Gulf fresh.
The seafood labeling law expands a current state law that applies only to shrimp and crawfish served in restaurants. The proposed law makes it illegal in Mississippi for wholesalers, processors, retailers, restaurants and other food service establishments to represent foreign seafood and crawfish as domestic, either verbally or in writing.
It requires these businesses to label crawfish and seafood as follows:
- Farm-raised, domestic if raised and processed in the United States
- Wild-caught domestic if caught in U.S. waters
- Foreign if hatched, raised, caught or processed outside the U.S., with the country of origin listed.
“We haven’t received any opposition whatsoever,” said the bill’s author, Rep. Brent Anderson of Bay St. Louis, who expects the bill to pass the Senate. “I believe the consumer or tourist in Mississippi has a right to know what they’re purchasing. There have been cases of misleading.”
Advertising fresh Gulf catches
Anderson said the law also is designed to protect South Mississippi’s fishing industry, which has suffered from a flood of foreign imports.
Under the bill, the origin of seafood and crawfish must be on a label, menu, sales display or other material used to sell the products.
Restaurants would be allowed to use a prominent display to advertise its wild-caught domestic seafood or crawfish rather than including the information on a menu. This detail in the bill is intended to allay concerns from the Mississippi Hospitality & Restaurant Association about the cost of printing or reprinting menus if seafood offerings change.
Anderson said he knows of one restaurant that advertises its Gulf seafood on a placard.
“We’re really encouraging them, “Don’t go mislabel your menu or you will be in violation,’ ” he said.
Enforcing seafood labeling law
The Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce and the Department of Marine Resources would enforce the law. Penalties for the misdemeanor start at $500-$1,000 for a first violation not corrected within three days’ notice and climb to no less than $10,000 for a fourth violation. Either state department also could suspend or revoke a license they had issued to an offender fined $10,000 or more.
If the measure becomes law, Mississippi would join Louisiana and Alabama in requiring that seafood be labeled.
A previous seafood labeling law proposed for Mississippi failed, but the recent federal case re-energized proponents.
In that case, wholesaler and retailer Quality Poultry & Seafood and Mary Mahoney’s Old French House restaurant, along with managers from both businesses, pleaded guilty to mislabeling foreign fish as coming from the Gulf.
The law the House passed now heads to the Senate, where it is expected to be assigned to the Ports and Marine Resources Committee, which has a March 4 deadline to act. The Senate deadline is March 14 for original action on bills from the House.
