EU’s seafood labelling ridiculed

A LEADING American seafood figure has ridiculed the EU’s insistence on thorough labelling, reported the Grimsby Telegraph.
John Connelly, chief executive of the National Fisheries Institute in the US, told the North Atlantic Seafood Forum yesterday that the data required on the back of a seafood product’s pack was of no interest to the consumer, stating that they trusted either the supermarket or the brand to have made those checks for them when it came to traceability.
Fearing it caused confusion, he used his wife as an example to demonstrate the point: ‘When she goes shopping she expects Tesco or Metro to have done the work for her.
‘She expects Young’s to have done this work. Consumers don’t want the responsibility. There is a sub-set that does but most consumers expect the market to have done this work for them.’
Grimsby seafood industry leaders were out in force at the forum, in Bergen, bringing a message from home about careers to be carved out.
They used the two-day event to highlight the UK’s hosting of the World Seafood Congress 2015, which will be held in Grimsby from September 5-9.