Seafood mislabeling

Seafood species can be mislabelled in misleading ways. This article examines the history and types of mislabeling, and looks at the current state of the law in different locations.

Proper species identification of seafood has been important to consumers since ancient times. The Jewish dietary laws known as kashrut required the Jews to identify certain types of fish to maintain a kosher diet. Kashrut does not require rabbis to "bless" fish to make it kosher, but rather to identify the features the fish must have to meet kosher requirements (among others) and confirm their existence.

In the 13th century, the King of England passed first law concerning proper labeling requirements, the Assize of Bread and Ale, regulating weight and quality of bread and ale. These laws were codified in the colonies, being a part of Britain, in some form. For instance, in 1758, the Georgia Legislature passed the Act for Regulating the Assize of Bread requiring bakers to make an identification mark on their bread to show a source of origin, among other rules. Fines were imposed by the statute for lacking this labeling requirement, even if the bread conformed in all other manners.

However, although the United States and each State had adopted the common law of Britain, the regulations on bread did not last long in the colonies. Because bakers in the colonies were subject to the free-market forces of supply and demand, unlike the bakers’ monopolies of the Old World, the colonial bakers began to protest the burdens of these laws and they were eventually repealed once independence was declared. One prominent protest in Massachusetts laid out the economic differences of the colonies and the Old World as a plea to remove these requirements. While the gist of these protests focused on the pricing restrictions, some were directed toward the labeling requirement as well.

After just over a century as a nation, the United States began to recognize, once again, the need to regulate food packaging. In 1898, the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists established a Committee on Food Standards headed by Harvey W. Wiley and thereafter states began incorporating these standards into their food statutes. In the US, the Lacey Act of 1900 provided for criminal and civil penalties for transporting certain species of wildlife in commerce. While the Lacey Act was directed toward conservation efforts, the law also created a de facto labeling requirement for certain types of products, such as fish.

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Wikipedia