BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) -- Louisiana’s new law that requires that imported seafood be clearly labeled on packaging and menus will start to be enforced by the Louisiana Department of Health.

Act 372 mandates that if a retailer, restaurant, or supplier is selling imported shrimp, crawfish or other seafood it must clearly be labeled. The state Department of Agriculture will begin looking for such labels during their regular weights and measures checks.

“Basically, if the package of imported seafood is deemed misleading as to its origin, in other words, if it says Boudreaux's and it's got a picture of a Louisiana shrimp boat and Louisiana scene, then under the law it's got to have ‘product of whatever country’ in 30 font on the front of the package," Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain said.

LDH lays out the requirements of the labeling under this law.

Act 148, which is the companion legislation that adds teeth to the labeling requirements, states that should a business violate the law after the Commissioner has filed a stop order could result in fines of $15,000 to $50,000 depending on the number of violations.

The Seafood Safety Task Force reiterated that they are not trying to go after any particular restaurant or seller. They just want consumers to be aware of what they are buying when it comes to seafood. They met to talk about how they could improve the law in the upcoming legislative session.

“Weights and Measures Division under the Office of Metrology, Weights, Measures and Standards will begin inspecting the packaging of crawfish, shrimp products and other for compliance during routine price verification inspections,” Strain said.

Strain would like to see the enforcement of this law be shifted from the state health department to the Department of Agriculture where they already have a recommendation process and a way for people to appeal any citations.

The law does not provide for retailers to sell out of any old mislabeled product once enforcement begins. They can, however, add a sticker to the packaging or menus to comply with the law so they do not have to throw out products.

The task force heard from SeaD Consulting, which promotes genetic testing materials to quickly test seafood off of a plate to see if it has been imported. Right now, the board is leery of using it for enforcement of the labeling law as the test has not gotten all the government approvals. 

The agency did a random test of several restaurants in the Baton Rouge area, with some restaurants showing to be using imported shrimp.

“A number of times I've heard people tell me that they're going to Louisiana to eat some good old fresh seafood, and they're most probably just as likely to have that good old fresh seafood in Chicago as they are here,” Founder of SeaD Consulting Dave Williams said. “So, you know, I believe that you have a culture and a community that needs to be saved.”

The task force is also looking into more funding to do more testing of antibiotics that are not supposed to be used on those imported foods. 

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