The Center for Food Safety today filed a complaint and legal petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) urging the agency to enforce the integrity of the U.S. organic food label by preventing the misleading practice of labeling seafood imports as “organic”.  Increasingly, U.S. consumers are confronted with imported seafood labeled as organic despite the fact that there are no U.S. organic seafood standards in place.

Until these standards are released (they are currently in development), the Center for Food Safety action calls upon USDA to prevent consumer deception by enforcing  existing organic labeling laws and regulations.  The Center, which is joined in this effort by Consumers Union and Food and Water Watch, has identified the practice of allowing seafood to be labeled as “organic” in absence of regulations as unfair, deceptive and misleading, a violation of both the Organic Foods Production Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act.

“Allowing importers to label their seafood ‘organic’ when it cannot meet USDA standards is a disservice to American consumers, who have come to trust and believe in the organic label,” said Joseph Mendelson, Legal Director of the Center for Food Safety. “USDA’s decision to allow importers to call their products organic when many of them use antibiotics or feed that would not be permitted under U.S. regulations is dishonest.  Consumers have the right to know that the labeling on their food is truthful and accurate.”

The USDA is currently in the process of establishing organic regulations for fin and shellfish. As currently drafted, the regulations would not allow the use of antibiotics or non-organic feed.  With U.S. sales of organic food dramatically increasing, a number of foreign seafood imports labeled as “organic” have appeared to take advantage of this emerging market.  In today’s action, the Center for Food Safety and its partners have also requested that in absence of USDA enforcement steps the Federal Trade Commission quickly curtail the misleading use of the term “organic” by overseas seafood producers so that consumers are not adversely affected.

In conjunction with today’s action, Consumers Union released the results of a new survey showing significant consumer interest in strict organic seafood standards. The national survey of over 1,000 people in conjunction with found that 74% of respondents were concerned about ocean pollution caused by fish farms advertised as “organic”. Moreover, 91% of respondents agreed that fish labeled as “organic” should be produced without environmental pollution and be free of or low in contaminants like mercury and PCB’s.

“Consumers have made it clear that the ‘organic’ fish they buy needs to mean more than it does now,” said Dr. Urvashi Rangan, Ph.D., senior scientist and policy analyst at Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports.  USDA needs to step up to the plate and protect the integrity of all organic food by prohibiting the “organic” label on fish while they work on specific standards that meet consumer expectations.

View legal petition to USDA

View Appendix A: Examples of companies selling “organic” seafood in the U.S

View letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requesting FTC take action to prevent misleading “organic” labels on seafood