Honesty in Seafood Labeling Law Advances in MS for Restaurants. Here’s What’s Next.
February 20, 2025 | 1 min to read
The Mississippi House unanimously passed a seafood labeling law requiring businesses to disclose whether seafood and crawfish are domestic or foreign. This legislation follows a federal case where two Biloxi businesses falsely labeled foreign fish as local. The law mandates specific labeling: "Farm-raised, domestic" for U.S. products, "Wild-caught domestic" for local catches, and "Foreign" for imports, with the country of origin specified.
Mississippi consumers would know whether their seafood and crawfish are domestic or foreign under a law the House unanimously passed Monday, months after two Biloxi businesses pleaded guilty in a federal case to selling foreign fish as Gulf fresh. The seafood labeling law expands a current state law that applies only to shrimp and crawfish served in restaurants. The proposed law makes it illegal in Mississippi for wholesalers, processors, retailers, restaurants and other food service establishments to represent foreign seafood and crawfish as domestic, either verbally or in writing.
It requires these businesses to label crawfish and seafood as follows: Farm-raised, domestic if raised and processed in the United States Wild-caught domestic if caught in U.S. waters Foreign if hatched, raised, caught or processed outside the U.S., with the country of origin listed.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Anita Lee, Sun Herald