Greenpeace has called for clear labelling of Australian seafood products with the species of fish and where it was caught.
The environmental organisation says accurate, informative seafood labelling is essential for public health protection, consumer welfare, comprehensive seafood chain-of-custody, promotion of sustainable fisheries, and food security.
Australians consume an estimated 370,000 tonnes of seafood a year. Per capita consumption has roughly doubled since 1975 but domestic production has failed to keep up. As a result, Australia is now a net importer of seafood with more than 70 per cent of seafood coming from overseas.
Despite this, the majority of Australians believe they are mostly purchasing Australian seafood: a perception, according to Greenpeace, which is perpetuated by inadequate labelling. Current labelling laws don’t require food brands, restaurants, or other seafood sellers to accurately identify the species of seafood sold or disclose where it was caught.
Seafood products are the most highly traded food commodity globally and the global production and trade of seafood often involves complex chains of custody meaning a single seafood product may be caught, processed, packaged and sold in different parts of the world. If there is a health scare, it can be difficult to trace the origin of the problem.
Greenpeace also scrutinised Australia’s country of origin labelling, saying in the release “unfortunately, Australian country of origin labels for seafood may not refer in any meaningful way to the origin of the seafood contained in the product. Instead it might refer to the country where the fish was landed or processed, or where most value was added through processing and packaging.”
“Seafood caught in the Indian Ocean, processed in China, then crumbed and packaged in Australia might still be labelled ‘made in Australia’.”
Greenpeace also want a change to a lack of a labelling requirement in Australia that ensure accurate, consistent use of fish names.
It is legal, for example, to label any fish except crustacea, as just ‘fish’ – and although this isn’t untrue, it doesn’t provide consumers with much useful information.
The Australian Fish Names Standard provides guidance on accurate species identification, but because it is a voluntary standard.