Seafood Fraud and Safety Background and Issues

Media attention has focused on recent incidents of fraud relating to seafood where restaurants knowingly serve lower-priced fish than identified on menus; lower-priced species are marketed commercially as higher-priced species; packaged weights of seafood are less than labelled weights, and extra water is added to seafood to increase the total product weight; all of which raise public concern. Most seafood fraud is based on supplying the consumer with something different from and inferior to the product expected. This book explores the questions Congress faces of whether the laws applicable to fraudulent seafood sales and marketing are clear and enforceable, whether agency enforcement efforts targeting seafood fraud are adequate, and whether penalties for seafood fraud are a deterrent.