Chefs and Restaurant Owners Seek Traceability Standards for Fish
A group of prominent chefs and restaurant owners would like the U.S. government impose traceability requirements on domestic and imported fish, they said in an Oct. 25 letter. There's too little known about the fish being bought and used by the restaurants and it's impossible for the restaurants to verify where the fish come from, they said. The letter didn't provide specifics on the standards they seek or how they should be regulated.
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Fraud is becoming a problem in the industry, they said. "As more seafood is imported into the United States, our fish follows an increasingly complex path from fishing vessel to plate, increasing the risk of fraud each step of the way and making it more difficult for us to make eco-friendly choices," the letter said. "Despite growing concern about where our nation’s seafood comes from, chefs, restaurant owners and consumers are routinely given little or no information about the fish they purchase. We rely on our purveyors to supply us with high quality, safe, legal and honestly labeled seafood. Unfortunately, the information that travels with each fish is often limited."
"We believe that robust traceability standards are needed for all fish sold in the U.S. -- both domestic and imported," the letter said. "As food industry leaders, we call on the U.S. government to require that seafood is traceable in order to prevent seafood fraud and keep illegal fish out of the U.S. market."