Agencies Draft Voluntary Seafood Inspection Plan : Food: The government wants companies to do the scrutinizing. Legislators propose that the monitoring be done by the Agriculture Department.

Two federal agencies Friday disclosed plans for a voluntary inspection program for fish and shellfish that would be funded by the companies that wish to participate.

“The joint program is intended to enhance current inspections by the agencies and thus to provide additional assurance to consumers that fish and fish products are safe, wholesome and properly labeled,” the Food and Drug Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

The plans were announced just weeks after two Senate committees approved similar bills that would set up mandatory, taxpayer-funded inspection programs for all seafood products.

One bill, approved by the Senate Agriculture Committee, would shift the responsibility for seafood inspection from FDA and NOAA to the Agriculture Department.

The bill would require USDA to set up the new system along the same lines as its meat and poultry inspection programs.

The inspection service proposed by FDA and NOAA, however, would be funded only by users and would supplement existing programs rather than replace them.

The agencies set no launch date for the service but said they plan to begin a two-month pilot program Oct. 1.

The announcement merely reveals the agencies’ intention to proceed with the service and request public comment on the overall plan and the pilot program.

Although the plan was billed as a federal inspection system, it in fact would leave assurance of safety, wholesomeness and accurate labeling to the seafood industry itself, subject to NOAA and FDA verification.

The program would identify critical points at which health risks such as spoilage or bacterial growth could be controlled and require monitoring at those points.

It would also attempt to guard against economic fraud through such practices as over-breading or short-weighting, the two agencies said.

To aid consumers, an official mark or seal would designate those fish and shellfish that had gone through the inspection program, an FDA spokesman said.

Americans consume 3.7 billion pounds of seafood a year, 15.4 pounds per person. Only 11% is subject to voluntary federal inspection.