As Appears On WSFA.com
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – Penalties could be coming to Alabama restaurants if they fail to label seafood correctly. This would mean that restaurants across the state would have to disclose where their seafood product is coming from.
The failure to do so could result in the loss of points from previous state health department sanitation scores.
“I’ll tell you what, we love about it, it’s a level playing field,” said President of Wharf Casual Seafood, Noah Griggs.
He says that Wharf Casual Seafood has made a push in the last year, even before this proposal, to buy domestically because it helps the American fisherman.
Currently, 90% of Wharf’s product comes from the United States, with only a small piece coming from international waters.
“Our crab legs and our lobster is primarily from Canada or Nova Scotia,” said Director of Operation Services for Wharf, Maurice Murphy.
Rep. Chip Brown says his bill is designed to encourage restaurants to use Alabama products, yet Griggs says that may not always be possible.
“There are times when we have to go out of U.S. domestic waters to get seafood. There are times when fishermen are not fishing grouper. So, they go elsewhere. There are seasons where we can’t get the product. So, we’ve been doing this long enough that we know you got to go elsewhere, but you got to know where to go,” said Griggs.
House Bill 444 was introduced Feb. 12 and is in committee, if enacted, it would go into effect Oct. 1.
Alabama’s current labeling law was passed in 2024.