"Do you like things that taste LIKE catfish...?"
Was the emphasis on the "cat" or the "fish"?
Posted on 07/06/2013 11:28:10 AM PDT by Olog-hai
The Mississippi (Catfish Marketing L)aw, which updates a 2008 law, requires every grocer and restaurant in the state to “provide the consumer with the country of origin and method of production of catfish” and, now, of other catfish-like fish.
While the 2008 law required groceries throughout the state to provide country-of-origin labeling for catfish alone, the new law expands the measure to include all catfish-like fish, which is mostly imported, at every “restaurant, cafeteria, lunch room, food stand, saloon, tavern, bar, lounge or other similar facility operated as an enterprise engaged in the business of selling food to the public.”
The law expands the state’s ability to require “any person that prepares, stores, handles or distributes catfish or fish for retail sale maintain a verifiable record-keeping audit trail.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
I think the law is misguided
It assumes US fish are safe
Just because a catfish is harvested in the US
Does NOT mean it is safe to eat
Without the audit trail requirement, the country-of-origin labeling is meaningless. Retailers (or those earlier in the chain) could just slap a USA label on anything.
You selling much PA catfish in Mississippi?
Very few restaurants serve wild catfish from fishermen like your writer’s “Ellis” in the movie Mud.
The retailers are often being delivered whole fish
They should know the species by sight
But the product labeling to the consumer is frequently... wrong
This has been reported to be an industry wide problem
"Do you like things that taste LIKE catfish...?"
Was the emphasis on the "cat" or the "fish"?
Consumers should be made aware of where their food comes from and what it actually is.
This guy is raising some false flag with his concern with Mississippi State Regulations on retailers, obviously has some connection with importing the crud.
Don’t go to AJ’s? They swear theirs is from Mississippi, even if it is farm raised.
Good! Seeing as how China has been importing to the hilt in that area.
That is exactly what has happened to get around “Country of origin” requirements and why Mississippi has been forced to require the paper trail.
So the answer is expansion of government?
If it's so important to you, couldn't you have spent five minutes researching it on your own?
Answer my questions about your unusual interest in being able to skirt existing laws and import unsafe “catfish like” fish being sold as catfish everywhere.
You import Chinese melamine dog food too?
Yes, sometimes it is necessary for government to step in to protect the citizens.
A tourist in China found a large chunk of auto tyre in his soup and when questioned the waiter said the automobile had replaced the horse.
I’m in favor. I haven’t liked the flood of Chinese fish. It’s hard to find good catfish in some areas after the flood from China. Little runt pieces that are more like fish flavored hush puppies. I remember the big flakey fillets I always got as a kid.
I say label it and let the free market decide.
Unless now “free trade” means helping conceal that the food product comes from the dirtiest food producing place on earth.
The commissioner may require that any person that prepares, stores, handles or distributes catfish or fish for retail sale maintain a verifiable record-keeping audit trail that permits the commissioner to verify compliance with this law and any regulations promulgated hereunder.Suspicion over expansion of government does not mean that one has a vested interest or an ulterior motive. Lauding expansion of government is quite suspect, though.
Though the law was intended to protect Delta residents like Ellis and his family from foreign competitors, its unintended consequences will likely impose new costs for these same people in the form of greater liability, thousands of dollars in potential fines, and confusing or impossible record-keeping requirements. …Now is this true? Valid question.
What would you suggest?
What would you suggest?
It’d have to he pretty easy to document the source of the fish,,, if it was Catfish from a southern aqua farm. If its some crapfish cat-impersonator from China, it might be harder.
How about the ability to sue the snot out of someone who sells you ‘catfish” when it is actually some polluted Asian ersatz substitute? I’d be just fine with that.
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