AL seafood label bill will take effect this Oct.

AL seafood label bill will take effect this Oct.

A bill requiring grocery store delis and restaurants in Alabama to label whether seafood being served is imported or domestically produced will go into effect on Oct. 1.
Introduced earlier in the year by State Rep Chip Brown, the law was signed by Governor Kay Ivey in May and also requires establishments to designate whether seafood is wild-caught or farm-raised.
“The seafood industry is essential to the economy throughout Alabama’s Gulf Coast region, and with foreign-caught products flooding the U.S. market, we must take every step to both support it and protect it,” Rep. Brown told the Alabama Daily News. “By requiring disclosure of the country of origin for seafood, we can encourage the use of products caught in Alabama while ensuring that consumers are better informed about the food they consume.”
Mobile Baykeeper praised the legislation as a win for local fishers beset by competition from foreign imports.
“Imported seafood has been decimating our neighbors’ ability to make a living,” Mobile Baykeeper Executive Director William Strickland. “Imports undercut the price of Alabama-harvested seafood, causing generational commercial fishing families to suffer. However, foreign, farmed seafood is not the preference of most consumers. We are grateful to Representative Chip Brown for putting the choice in our hands on what kind of seafood we want to eat. Now, let’s get to work on protecting habitat so we have more shrimp to catch.”
The law is the latest government action designed to tackle seafood imports, which officials claim are devastating domestic producers. In 2023, Bayou La Batre issued a disaster declaration over the impact of imports on local shrimpers.