Interim House Majority Leader Chip Brown (R-Hollinger’s Island) announced on Monday that he has filed legislation that “further strengthens Alabama’s existing seafood labeling law and forces restaurants to comply with its provisions or face severe penalties.”
Restaurants located in Alabama are currently required to disclose whether seafood is domestic or imported on the menu listing for dishes they sell or on conspicuous signage plainly visible to diners and patrons. Additionally, the same methods must be used to disclose if fish or shrimp products being used are farm-raised or caught in the wild.
“Our current labeling law is designed to inform consumers and encourage restaurants to use seafood products harvested in Alabama, but too many owners are exploiting loopholes or simply refusing to follow its requirements,” Brown said. “This legislation adds sharp teeth to the statute and includes strong penalties for restaurants that continue thumbing their noses at state law.”
Despite civil penalties, including monetary fines, that can be assessed by the Alabama Department of Public Health for non-compliance, some restaurants across the state are either ignoring the law altogether or exploiting perceived loopholes, according to Brown.
To ensure full compliance and provide consumers with important information about the seafood products they are served, House Bill 444 does the following:
- Automatically deducts five points from the publicly posted State Health Department sanitation scores of any restaurant that is not in compliance with seafood labeling requirements.
- Authorizes the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries to genetically test the origin of restaurant seafood products to ensure they are in compliance.
- Removes signage as an option for disclosing the country of origin of seafood products and requires restaurants to use country of origin labeling on their menus.
- Requires the Alabama Department of Public Health to “regularly inspect food service establishments” to ensure they are in compliance with the seafood labeling law.
- Requires the Alabama Department of Public Health to regularly and publicly publish the names and addresses of restaurants that are in violation of the seafood labeling law.
- The legislation, which goes into effect on October 1 if enacted, has been referred to the House Health Committee for consideration.
Alabama’s current seafood labeling law was passed in 2024 after a popular restaurant in neighboring Mississippi pled guilty to selling its diners meals made from frozen, low-grade fish imported from Africa, India and Suriname that was marketed as premium, fresh-caught Gulf fish that commanded notably higher prices.
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