BSB sees crackdown as adding “teeth” to enforcement efforts
January 29, 2010 Washington, DC - The announcement of a 28-count indictment on charges of seafood mislabeling and species substitution is another recent example of how the government is putting some long-awaited teeth in efforts to stamp out fish fraud, according to the Better Seafood Board (BSB.)
"Whether it's a guilty plea in New Jersey Federal Court last week or an indictment in Alabama this week, these efforts prove the government takes fish fraud seriously. It's time for those in the seafood community who haven't made economic integrity a priority to take a good look at their sourcing practices, before someone else does it for them," said BSB Secretary Lisa Weddig.
The latest indictment alleges three people supplied falsely labeled fish to customers in Alabama and the Florida panhandle and in some cases substituted cheaper product for more expensive seafood.
"We'd like to see the FDA taking the lead in more short weight and species substitution cases but we're happy to see the Justice Department doing its part too. There is simply no room for this in the industry," said Weddig.
The accused face multiple counts of mislabeling and smuggling which each carrying a maximum penalty of between three and 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The Better Seafood Board (BSB) was established by the National Fisheries Institute to provide a mechanism for industry's partners in the supply chain - restaurants, retail operations, producers and processors - to report suppliers suspected of committing economic fraud.
Judge imposes one of the longest sentences ever for false seafood labeling
May 20, 2009 Washington, DC – A Virginia man’s 63 month federal prison sentence, for his role in a conspiracy that fraudulently labeled and sold pangasius in the United States, is evidence that fish fraud is a serious crime and not just the cost of doing business.
“Some businesses are convinced they’re not being victimized by their suppliers. They say no, not me. But in this case we’re talking about 10 million pounds of fish. That’s a lot of not me’s,” said Lisa Weddig the Secretary of the Better Seafood Board.
The Justice Department’s prosecution centered on “importers and seafood dealers who worked together” to sell “frozen fillets that were falsely labeled as more desirable and more expensive fish.”
Prosecutors demonstrated that Peter Xuong Lam of Virginia Star was part of a scheme that imported more than $15 million worth of pangasius that was illegally labeled as, among other things, sole, grouper and flounder. DNA tests revealed the fraud.
“If you’re not dealing with a member of the BSB you have the potential to open your business up to the type of fraud we’ve seen in this case,” said Weddig. “While it’s disappointing to see this going on, it’s hearting to see law enforcement stepping up and doing something about it.”
The Justice Department says the case was investigated by Special Agents of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Better Seafood Board (BSB) was established by the National Fisheries Institute to provide a mechanism for industry’s partners in the supply chain – restaurants, retail operations, producers and processors - to report suppliers suspected of committing economic fraud.
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Contact Information:
Gavin Gibbons
(703) 752-8891
ggibbons@nfi.org
CFIA tells importers it’s checking net weights
April 2, 2009 Washington, DC – In a letter to seafood importers the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) says, as of April first companies “must be in full compliance” with its regulatory requirements, including “net content.”
“We brought our continued concerns about net weight fraud to CFIA in January, as they worked on their Strengthened Fish Import Program,” said Patrick McGuinness, President of the Fisheries Council of Canada (FCC.) “They quickly recognized the food safety implications and incorporated, what we consider, a well-crafted plan to increase testing for net weight.”
As part of the new effort, foreign firms with a history of poor net weight compliance will receive particular scrutiny.
“We’re pleased to see CFIA taking such a thorough and proactive approach on the net weight issue,” said Lisa Weddig, Secretary of the Better Seafood Bureau. “At the same time we’re disappointed that our own Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has failed to recognize the importance of this issue and devote needed resources to it.”
CFIA’s short-weight inspection initiative will not only increase inspections but investigate specific short-weight complaints.
“The Agency is dedicated to this project and has committed to meet the FCC Short- Weight Committee periodically to review the progress,” said McGuinness.
“We appreciate the FDA’s need for more resources but with $650 million worth of food safety funding in place we would hope they could find a way to allocate a few dollars to crack down on this fraudulent activity,” said Weddig.
The Better Seafood Bureau (BSB) was established by the National Fisheries Institute to provide a mechanism for industry’s partners in the supply chain – restaurants, retail operations, producers and processors - to report suppliers suspected of committing economic fraud.
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Contact Information:
Gavin Gibbons
(703) 752.8891
ggibbons@nfi.org
Government Accountability Office finds FDA efforts deficient
March 20, 2009 Washington, DC – A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released today finds the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) work to combat fraud in the seafood industry lacking.
“The report calls for, among other things, collaboration between agencies on fraud but that type of effort depends first on regulators recognizing the importance of the issue and the potential impact of ignoring it,” said Better Seafood Bureau (BSB) Secretary Lisa Weddig. “There are folks inside the FDA who are committed to ferreting out this type of thing but simply aren’t given the resources to do the job.”
In 2007 responsible members of the seafood community decided they had seen enough fraud in the industry and launched the BSB, an independent organization designed to highlight companies playing by the rules and challenge those that are not.
“The seafood community does have a responsibility to address its own problems and we are pleased to see the GAO publicly recognize our efforts. But there’s an enforcement arm that lies within the FDA that needs to aggressively deal with these issues as well,” said Weddig.
In the last two months the FDA has refocused on some seafood scams, reissuing Guidance to Industry about just what constitutes fraud, hearing testimony on the issue before its Science Board and speaking out on seafood marketing it considers “misleading to the consumer.”
However, the GAO report says FDA’s own documents note that, “no resources have been allocated for seafood fraud-related work.”
“Folks who buy and sell seafood should hold themselves and those around them accountable for unethical and illegal schemes,” said Weddig. “But it’s often difficult to do that when the perception is that regulators themselves aren’t doing enough.”
The Better Seafood Bureau (BSB) was established by the National Fisheries Institute to provide a mechanism for industry’s partners in the supply chain – restaurants, retail operations, producers and processors - to report suppliers suspected of committing economic fraud.
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Contact Information:
Gavin Gibbons
(703) 752-8891
ggibbons@nfi.org
Regulators call marketing “misleading to the consumer”
March 4, 2009 Washington, DC – In a letter to the Better Seafood Bureau’s (BSB) secretary, Lisa Weddig, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) makes the agency’s policy on the use of the name white roughy for basa fish clear, calling it “misleading to the consumer.”
The name white roughy has begun to crop up on restaurant menus and at fish counters nationwide but especially in California.
“It is our position and clearly the FDA’s as well, that calling basa, white roughy is not merely part of the local vernacular but rather a concerted attempt to suggest that the fish is somehow related to the more expensive roughies, like orange roughy,” said Weddig.
The FDA letter notes that orange roughy “commands a higher value in the marketplace” and that the hybrid term white roughy is simply “not an acceptable market name.”
“There is a difference between genuine confusion and marketing designed to confuse,” said Weddig. “We want to educate people who may have a legitimate misunderstanding about what to call a certain fish and weed out those who are perpetrating a fraud.”
In recent weeks the FDA has stepped up its focus on economic integrity in the seafood industry. The agency updated its list of acceptable seafood names, rereleased its Guidance to Industry as a reminder of existing FDA policy regarding net weight fraud and separately heard testimony from Weddig on the topic before its science board.
The Better Seafood Bureau (BSB) was established by the National Fisheries Institute to provide a mechanism for industry’s partners in the supply chain – restaurants, retail operations, producers and processors - to report suppliers suspected of committing economic fraud.
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Contact Information:
Gavin Gibbons
(703) 752-8891
ggibbons@NFI.org
Seafood Community says Government needs to Enforce the Law
February 26, 2009 Washington, DC – The Better Seafood Bureau (BSB) has made its case for economic integrity to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). BSB secretary Lisa Weddig testified before the FDA Science Board in an effort to encourage the government to take a more prominent role in stamping out the practice of short weighting and species substitution.
“Enforcement needs to focus on all violations of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act – even those that don’t pose a public health risk,” Weddig testified.
The FDA’s mandated role in not only food safety but enforcement of fraud-related regulations is often overlooked.
“We have no doubt that those companies willing to cheat in one area such as economic fraud will also be willing to cheat or take short cuts on food safety controls. And we get evidence of these bad actors on an almost daily basis,” said Weddig.
Her testimony comes as part of a renewed effort to make economic integrity within the seafood community a focus of not just the industry but those tasked with regulating it.
During her statement Weddig said, “fraud prevention is a partnership between the government and the industry. Industry follows the rules and government enforces the rules.”
Her testimony comes just days after the FDA’s rerelease of its Guidance to Industry, a public reminder of existing FDA policy that warned net weight fraud is a felony.
The Better Seafood Bureau (BSB) was established by the National Fisheries Institute to provide a mechanism for industry’s partners in the supply chain – restaurants, retail operations, producers and processors - to report suppliers suspected of committing economic fraud.
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Contact Information:
Gavin Gibbons
(703) 752-8891
ggibbons@NFI.org
The headlines are everywhere; Fish Tale Has DNA Hook, DNA testing uncovers suspect sushi, Expensive fish mislabeled. Is it culinary fraud or an accident? Some serious science appears to have exposed fraud at the fish market. Fish sold as one species when they were not that species at all.
Better Seafood Bureau Calls Practice Unethical and Illegal
August 22, 2008 Washington, DC - Media reports from Toronto to New York are trumpeting the results of a Canadian study that enlisted the help of American teenagers to collect seafood samples for DNA testing. The reports say a quarter of the fish tested was mislabeled.
"While there is no way for us to speak to the validity of the study, or its results, it highlights the fact that the integrity of the whole seafood industry is under scrutiny and even allegations of mislabeling and specie substitution can have a serious impact," said National Fisheries Institute President John Connelly.
Canadian coverage of the report characterized the Better Seafood Bureau's (BSB) economic integrity efforts as "reputable representatives" dedicated to "ferreting out false marketing."
"When you do business with a BSB member you can have peace of mind that you're not going to end up on the wrong end of a DNA test," said BSB Secretary Lisa Weddig. "It's unlikely that this is the last round of DNA seafood tests we'll see in the media."
The study's results were published by the University of Guelph as part of an international network of researchers working with the Fish Barcode of Life campaign.
"Suggestions in the media that people are unwittingly being served endangered species is a bit of a stretch that puts this story on the road to unnecessary hysteria but the bottom line is, any type of specie substitution is not only unethical it's illegal. BSB members have gotten that message loud and clear," said Connelly.
For more than 60 years, the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) and its members have provided American families with the variety of sustainable seafood essential to a healthy diet. For more information visit: www.AboutSeafood.com.
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Contact Information:
Gavin Gibbons
703.752.8891
ggibbons@nfi.org
