Fish and chips are a favourite coastal treat, and soon we’ll know whether that fish was caught from Australian waters or further afield. Photo: Lisa Herbert.
New seafood labelling laws will be put in place on 1 July, requiring all restaurants and cafes to display the country of origin of seafood on their menus. The laws are aimed at increasing customer awareness of imported seafood so they can make informed decisions about what they’re eating.
The new laws will impact all hospitality businesses selling ready-to-eat seafood for immediate consumption, even if the customer takes the food away. The law covers saltwater and freshwater species, farmed and wild-caught products, and includes fish, molluscs, crustaceans, jellyfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, eels and other aquatic animals, as well as the eggs, larvae or spat of those animals.
Southern Cross Club Canberra’s executive chef Bradley Howden told Region that the new standards would benefit diners.
“I think that it will be good from a customer perspective: it’s already very common for people to ask, ‘Is your fish Australian?’,” he said.
“It’s always good to know where your fish is coming from. And I don’t think it will be inconvenient for businesses as lots of restaurants reprint their menus regularly.”
Dishes containing seafood should be labelled using the AIM system: A for Australian, I for imported and M for a mix of local and imported. The menus must also include a legend explaining what each letter indicates. If a venue uses only Australian or only imported seafood, then the menu can include a statement to that effect.
Even when a more specific origin is in the name of the dish — such as Sydney rock oyster, or Balmain bug — either the word Australia or an A must still be displayed.
Your local fish-and-chip takeaway shop might display dishes on its menu like this:
”Battered flathead (A) and chips.”
”Battered Australian flathead and chips.”
Or the menu might read: ”We only serve Australian seafood.”
Do you know where the prawns at your favourite restaurant come from? Photo: Michelle Kroll.
There are a few notable exceptions. The standards do not apply to shelf-stable seafoods such as canned tuna, fish stock, oyster sauce, or shrimp paste, nor to dishes containing these ingredients.
Fundraising events, and institutions such as schools, prisons and hospitals, are also exempt from these new standards. And if a dish is not advertised as containing seafood, and is not generally known to contain seafood — such as a small amount of prawn meat in fried rice — then the country of origin does not need to be labelled.
Separate standards are in place for retail sales of packaged seafood, and seafood that requires further preparation by the customer.
While the national laws are new, the Northern Territory has had similar standards in place since 2006. This should be some comfort to businesses concerned about the implementation of the new standards: Darwin hasn’t lost all its restaurants, cafes and food trucks!
The new standards are important as they will allow customers to make more informed decisions about what they’re choosing to eat. While many people assume that seafood on menus has been locally caught, this is often not the case. According to GoodFish, a sustainability initiative by the Australian Marine Conservation Society, two-thirds of prawns sold in Australia are shipped from Vietnam, and most of these imported prawns have been intensively farmed. There are significant environmental concerns about these prawn farms, including waterway pollution from chemicals and antibiotics.
The new standards may also boost the local seafood and fishery industry, as diners choose to eat local. But chef Howden points out that these changes may also bring the issue of affordability to the fore.
“People want Australian fish but it’s a lot more expensive,” he said. ”And just because something has been imported doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a poor-quality product; it just means it wasn’t caught here. Having the offer of a cheaper option can be beneficial for the customer.
“But if they’re willing to pay a bit more for an Australian product to support our industry, then I think that’s great.”
For diners wanting to know more about the sustainability of their seafood choices, GoodFish publishes a sustainable seafood guide that uses a traffic light system to indicate ‘’better choice’’, ‘’eat less’’, or ‘’say no’’.
The new seafood country of origin labelling standards will come into effect from 1 July.
Original Article published by Lucy Ridge on Region Canberra.
