Reason for Alert:
NOTE: The revisions to this Import Alert dated 11/22/2021 updates the Import Alert name, Type of Alert, reason for alert, guidance section, product description, charge, and PAF sections. Changes are noted and bracketed by asterisks (***)

 

*** FDA has found shipments of various species of fish, or other seafood, offered for entry under the name of fictitious, substituted, or otherwise incorrect species.

 

The Red List of this Alert identifies firms that have imported misbranded seafood products into the United States.

 

All references to Siluriformes fish (e.g., catfish, basa, tra, swai, etc.) have been removed from this alert because the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) now exercises primary regulatory oversight over Siluriformes fish and fishery products. Through USDA's mandatory inspection program, USDA currently regulates fish of the order Siluriformes and products derived from these fish (9 CFR chapter III subchapter F). Under the FSIS regulation, the labeling only of fish and fishery products within the family Ictaluridae may bear the term "catfish" (9 CFR 541.7(d)(2)). Information regarding catfish can be found on the USDA website at:
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/inspection/siluriformes. ***
Guidance:
***Divisions may detain without physical examination shipments of products identified on the Red List of this Alert.

 

Seafood products are to be labeled with a suitable statement of identity. FDA recognizes an acceptable market name for a species as a suitable "statement of identity" (21 CFR 101.3). An acceptable market name fairly represents the identity of the species to U.S. consumers because it is not confusingly similar to the name of another species and because it is not otherwise misleading. An acceptable market name may be: (1) a "common or usual name" established by either a history of common usage in the U.S. or by regulation; (2) the "common name;" or (3) more rarely, a name specifically coined as the market name for a species. The term "common name" refers to the English version of the name established and commonly used by ichthyologists and other fishery experts to describe a specific species and is distinct from the scientific name. Almost all species have been assigned a unique common name and its use as the market name has the advantage of limiting confusion about species identity in the marketplace. For this reason, FDA generally recommends use of the common name as the market name unless a common or usual name has been established by regulation or law. There are some common names that are prohibited by law and cannot be used as market names.

 

Although the scientific name, the Latin name for the genus and species of a fish established by fisheries taxonomists, may uniquely identify a species, it is not, by itself, an acceptable market name. Vernacular names are commonly recognized local or regional names for a species. In many cases, the same species may be recognized by a different name in another locale or region. Vernacular names generally are not acceptable market names.

 

The Seafood List - FDA's Guide to Acceptable Market Names for Seafood sold in Interstate Commerce (https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/fdcc/?set=seafoodlist) provides information that may be useful in determining an acceptable market name for a species. Species that are included on The Seafood List are those that FDA has determined are sold in interstate commerce or are likely to be sold in interstate commerce and are not prohibited by law from sale in interstate commerce. The list contains three types of names for each species - acceptable market name, common name, scientific name � as well as unacceptable vernacular name(s) for reference. The Seafood List is not an exhaustive list but is regularly updated, as resources permit.

 

Seafood products may be misbranded if they are labeled with a fictitious or incorrect common or usual name, including use of vernacular name, or are found, through sampling, to be labeled as another species.***