Congress Finally Tackles Seafood Safety

After 18 months of Congressional inaction in the face of rising concerns about potentially contaminated seafood, a bipartisan coalition of U.S. Senators last week introduced legislation that would create the nation’s first comprehensive, mandatory inspection program for fish and shellfish, estimated to cost between $60 million and $70 million annually.

The bill, “The Consumer Seafood Safety Act of 1992,” cosponsored by senators Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.), Ted Stevens (R-Ala.), George Mitchell (D-Me.) and four others, comes at a time when numerous reports indicate that more extensive regulatory efforts are needed to reassure consumers that the seafood supply is safe and wholesome.

The Senate and House last introduced similar legislation in 1990, but jurisdictional rivalries and turf battles among three federal agencies doomed the effort.

The latest seafood safety act must first clear the Senate Commerce Committee--since the committee passed similar legislation in 1990, no problem is anticipated--before it will be voted on by the entire Senate. The House is expected to introduce similar legislation soon but no timetable has been set.

The Departments of Health and Human Services, Agriculture and Commerce will coordinate the massive seafood safety effort. It will extend the federal government’s reach to foreign fish processing plants and domestic fishing boats (neither heretofore inspected) and on through the food distribution chain to the retail store and sushi bar. Even consumers would be targeted with educational materials on the proper ways to purchase, store, handle, cook and serve seafood.

Consumer advocates hailed the bill’s introduction.

“This is the most significant Congressional response to the problems of seafood safety that we have seen in nearly 20 years,” said Ellen Haas, executive director of Public Voice for Food & Health Policy. “The bottom line is that this program could prevent contaminated, uninspected seafood from making its way to the American dinner table.”

Seafood trade groups have been on record as endorsing such an enhanced inspection effort, as long as it was financed by tax dollars and not industry assessments.

“After all the negative publicity seafood has been receiving, we are looking forward to being able to reassure consumers about the safety of the U.S. seafood supply,” said Lee J. Weddig, executive vice president of the National Fisheries Institute in Arlington, Va. “Even though a substantial body of scientific and medical evidence suggests diets high in fish and seafood have significant benefits, recent media questions have caused consumers to feel less confident about our products. A more extensive monitoring program will solve this problem.”

There are some unique features to the legislation:

* The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta would conduct a national survey in order to “assess more accurately the frequency and sources of human disease in the United States associated with the consumption of seafood.” Current data is considered inadequate.

* The act would require random federal laboratory analyses of fish products to determine current levels of contaminants. No such figures exist today.

* The Food and Drug Administration would set maximum allowable levels for microbiological and chemical contaminants--or, alternatively, would ban all traces of the contaminants outright.

* The federal government could revoke a state’s right to ship seafood products in interstate commerce if local governments failed to enforce the yet-to-be-established standards.

* Fish products intended for raw consumption, such as those served in a sushi bar, may be required to be frozen or cooked if these are the only means available to adequately prevent contamination. (Some fish species served in sushi bars, such as tuna, are already frozen because of limited seasonable availability, but the vast majority of sushi and sashimi selections are not similarly processed.)

* Fishery products that comply with all federal standards will be able to display a government seal of approval.

* Violators of the bill will be subject to civil and criminal penalties.