Bill urges further inspection of commercially distributed seafood Federal legislation introduced March 4 by Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, and Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, would expand the National Marine Fisheries Service Seafood Inspection Program to seafood products commercially distributed throughout the nation.

The measure introduced in the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee would require the Secretaries of Commerce and Health and Human Services to work together to monitor seafood imports.

The Commercial Seafood Consumer Protection Act S. 2688 would raise standards for all seafood products commercially distributed in the United States, and protect the health and safety of all Americans, Stevens said.

Inouye noted that recent NOAA statistics concluded that the average American consumes approximately 16 pounds of fish and shellfish annually. “It is essential that Americans are confident in the safety of the seafood they eat,” Inouye said.

“Wild-caught Alaska seafood has consistently set the worldwide standard for quality and sustainability,” Stevens said. “However, more than 80 percent of the seafood consumed in the United States is imported from countries whose quality standards are nowhere near those applied in Alaska.”

~ Journal of Commerce