LegiStorm

Summary:

Fraudulent seafood sales and marketing the act of defrauding buyers of seafood for economic gain has been widely reported and has gained greater public attention in recent years. The extent of seafood fraud is difficult to determine because of its clandestine nature; fraud depends on not being detected, which often depends on not attracting attention or causing immediate harm to customers. Seafood fraud can include a variety of illegal activities, such as transshipping products to avoid antidumping and countervailing duties; mislabeling products or substituting one species for another; overtreating products with water-retaining chemicals; and short-weighting products. Although not illegal, some treatments, such as carbon monoxide/tasteless smoke, are being questioned for their potential to deceive consumers. The primary federal law that addresses seafood safety and fraud is the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 (FFDCA; 21 U.S.C. 301 et seq.). FFDCA prohibits the misbranding or adulteration of food products, including seafood products that have been mislabeled, substituted, or overtreated. FFDCA provides the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the Department of Health and Human Services with the primary responsibility for ensuring that domestic and imported foods, including seafood, are safe, wholesome, sanitary, and properly labeled. Observers have questioned whether greater coordination among federal agencies is needed, whether agency enforcement efforts targeting seafood fraud are sufficient, whether greater authorities are needed to trace seafood from its source to consumers, and whether the penalties for committing seafood fraud are adequate. Some consumer and environmental groups have called on federal agencies to aggressively enforce existing laws and on Congress to pass legislation that targets seafood fraud. Some in the seafood industry have supported industry initiatives to stop seafood fraud, but in most cases they have not advocated for new federal authorities. On June 17, 2014, President Obama released a presidential memorandum entitled Comprehensive Framework to Combat Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing and Seafood Fraud. The memorandum calls on executive departments and agencies to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and seafood fraud by strengthening coordination and using existing authorities. The President also established a task force composed of senior-level federal agency representatives to develop recommendations for a comprehensive framework that targets IUU fishing and seafood fraud. On March 15, 2015, the task force released its final recommendations, which included both international and domestic measures. Some segments of the seafood industry have questioned whether IUU fishing and seafood fraud should be addressed as part of the same initiative. They contend that although sometimes related, IUU fishing and seafood fraud are different issues and should be considered separately. In the 114th Congress, two bills related to seafood (S. 190 and H.R. 3282) have been introduced. S. 190 would seek to improve seafood safety by requiring equivalent standards in exporting countries, increasing inspections of exporting facilities, and inspecting and testing at least 20% of seafood imports. H.R. 3282 would focus on both seafood safety and seafood fraud by requiring coordination of inspection activities through the National Sea Grant Program, maintaining a list of exporters that violate U.S. seafood safety laws, and including seafood fraud detection and prevention during seafood safety inspections. H.R. 3282 also would add new seafood traceability requirements. To date, no action has been taken on either bill.