MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Catfish is as regional a product as barbecue or the blues, but diners now must ask themselves which delta their fish is coming from — the Mississippi or the Mekong.
That changes after July 1.
New laws in Tennessee and Mississippi will require restaurants to tell customers where they get their catfish. A similar law is already on the books in Arkansas. Catfish labeling legislation also has been introduced in Georgia, and supporters hope passage here will pave the way to similar laws in Texas, Missouri and Kentucky.
Grocery stores and meat markets already have to clearly label their catfish's country of origin, thanks to a 2002 federal mandate. In the same year, Congress made it illegal to market other types of Southeast Asian fish as catfish.
The new state laws are intended to make catfish safer for consumers and to help level a playing field tilted unfairly against American catfish farmers, according to industry advocates. They say foreign catfish, which primarily come from Asia, are not raised on farms but in small pens in rivers or reservoirs, where diseases spread easily. To fight contamination, foreign farmers use an array of antibiotics not approved for use in the United States. However, the antibiotics go largely undetected; unlike domestic catfish, very little imported catfish is inspected by government agencies.
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