Safety and Fraud Enforcement for Seafood Act - Fall

Pervasive mislabeling, poor documentation, and inadequate government regulations in the seafood industry have been brought to the attention of the American public in recent years by several nationwide studies of seafood in markets and restaurants. Seafood fraud is a widespread phenomenon that has complex economic, public health, and environmental implications. In response to the issues associated with seafood fraud, Senator Ed Markey introduced the House Bill 1012, the Safety and Fraud Enforcement for Seafood Act, commonly known as the SAFE Seafood Act, in March 2013. The proposed legislation is designed to improve the safety of the seafood supply and prevent seafood fraud, primarily in the form of mislabeling.  

This document provides an analysis of the implementation of the SAFE Seafood Act that includes a breakdown of the bill into five major components. We discuss the bill’s legislative history and associated controversies and develop a staffing, budget, and master calendar for its implementation. Methods for measuring the program’s success are proposed as a way of verifying the goals of improved traceability along the seafood supply chain.  

Through the implementation of these five components - improving tracking, increasing inspections, maintaining a public list of violators, standardizing seafood names and improving interagency cooperation between FDA and NOAA - the goal of mitigating seafood fraud to effect positive changes on broader economic, public health and environmental systems would be met. 

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