Fishing industry and green NGOs unite for better seafood labelling

By Renee Vajtauer

CEO Commonwealth Fisheries Association

CFA have been pushing for Country of Origin labelling (CoOL) through the National Seafood Industry Alliance, an alliance between CFA and state peak industry bodies. CFA are supporting the Food Standards Amendment (Fish Labelling) Bill 2015, put forward by Senator’s Xenophon, Lazarus, Lambie, Whish-Wilson, Wang and Madigan.   The Bill addresses industry’s aim that Food Standards Australia New Zealand develop, within 12 months, a new standard to apply in Australia that requires fish sold for immediate consumption to be labelled according to existing country of origin requirements. The draft CoOL Bill is available here.

As part of this push for better labelling, CFA, other fishing industry members and environmental groups have released a joint statement calling for seafood labelling reform. All signatories to the joint statement have agreed that accurate seafood labelling is essential for the sustainable management of fish stocks, protection of public health and informed consumer choice. This statement is available here.

CFA welcomes SETFIA on board as a signatory to the statement, and acknowledges SETFIA’s hard work in this space.