HLS 23RS-2393 ORIGINAL
2023 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 88
BY REPRESENTATIVE KERNER
SEAFOOD: Memorializes Congress to compel the United States Food and Drug
Administration to fulfill its duties regarding inspection and testing of imported
seafood
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2To memorialize the United States Congress to take such actions as are necessary to compel
3 the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to fulfill its duties regarding
4 inspection and testing of imported seafood.
5 WHEREAS, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in
62019 the United States imported six billion pounds of edible seafood products, including one
7and one half billion pounds of shrimp, an increase of nearly six and one half million pounds
8more than the shrimp imported in 2018; and
9 WHEREAS, the 2019 shrimp imports alone, valued at six billion dollars, accounted
10for twenty-seven percent of the total value of imported seafood that year, which reached
11twenty-two billion dollars; and
12 WHEREAS, it is estimated that over half of the imported seafood consumed in the
13United States is from aquaculture, or seafood farming, rather than wild-caught; and
14 WHEREAS, the FDA is responsible for the safety of all fish and fishery products
15entering the United States and sold in Louisiana; and
16 WHEREAS, the FDA's seafood safety program is governed by its Hazard Analysis
17Critical Control Point regulations, which address food safety management through the
18analysis and control of biological, chemical, and physical hazards from raw material
19production and procurement and handling to manufacturing, distribution, and consumption
20of the finished product; and
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HCR NO. 88
1 WHEREAS, FDA regulations are supposed to measure the compliance of imported
2seafood with inspections of foreign processing facilities, sampling of seafood offered for
3import into the United States, domestic surveillance sampling of imported products,
4inspections of seafood importers, foreign country program assessments, and the use of
5information from foreign partners and FDA overseas offices; and
6 WHEREAS, in 2011 the FDA was only inspecting two percent of the seafood
7imported into the United States; and
8 WHEREAS, unfortunately 2011 is the last year for which data regarding the
9percentage of imports inspected is available due to a lack of transparency and inadequate
10assessment measures; and
11 WHEREAS, in 2011 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted that the
12FDA's assessment of foreign aquaculture operations was limited by the FDA's lack of
13procedures, criteria, and standards; and ten years later, a 2021 GAO report found that the
14agency was failing to monitor the effectiveness of its own enforcement policies and
15procedures; and
16 WHEREAS, in contrast, the European Union regularly conducts physical checks of
17approximately twenty percent of all imported fish products that are fresh, frozen, dry, salted,
18or hermetically sealed, and for certain fishery products, physical checks are conducted on
19approximately fifty percent of imports; and
20 WHEREAS, the Louisiana State University School of Renewable Natural Resources
21published a 2020 paper titled "Determination of Sulfite and Antimicrobial Residue in
22Imported Shrimp to the USA", which presented findings from a study of shrimp imported
23from India, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Bangladesh, and Ecuador and purchased
24from retail stores in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and
25 WHEREAS, a screening of these shrimp for sulfites and residues from antimicrobial
26drugs found the following: (1) five percent of the shrimp contained malachite green, (2)
27seven percent contained oxytetracycline, (3) seventeen percent contained fluoroquinolone,
28and (4) seventy percent contained nitrofurantoin, all of which have been banned by the FDA
29in domestic aquaculture operations; and
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HCR NO. 88
1 WHEREAS, although the FDA requires that food products exposed to sulfites must
2include a label with a statement about the presence of sulfites, of the forty-three percent of
3these locally purchased shrimp found to contain sulfites, not one package complied with this
4labeling requirement; and
5 WHEREAS, the drug and sulfite residues included in this screening can be harmful
6to human health during both handling and consumption and have been known to cause all
7of the following: liver damage and tumors, reproductive abnormalities, cardiac arrhythmia,
8renal failure, hemolysis, asthma attacks, and allergic reactions; and
9 WHEREAS, the results of this study confirm that existing screening and enforcement
10measures for imported seafood are insufficient; whatever the percentage of imports inspected
11may be, seafood is currently being imported that contains unsafe substances that put
12American consumers at risk; and
13 WHEREAS, because imported seafood is not held to the same standards as domestic
14seafood, domestic fishing industries are put at a distinct and significant disadvantage
15commercially; and
16 WHEREAS, according to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the
17average value of Louisiana shrimp fell from three dollars and eighty cents per pound in 1980
18to one dollar fifty cents per pound in 2017; and
19 WHEREAS, this unfair competition allows foreign competitors to flood the United
20States market with seafood harvested under intensive farming practices using antimicrobial
21drugs, while devastating local industries and the coastal communities built around them.
22 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
23memorialize the United States Congress to take such actions as are necessary to compel the
24United States Food and Drug Administration to fulfill its duties regarding inspection and
25testing of imported seafood.
26 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
27presiding officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Congress of the
28United States of America and to each member of the Louisiana congressional delegation.
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HCR NO. 88
DIGEST
The digest printed below was prepared by House Legislative Services. It constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument. The keyword, one-liner, abstract, and digest do not constitute
part of the law or proof or indicia of legislative intent. [R.S. 1:13(B) and 24:177(E)]
HCR 88 Original 2023 Regular Session Kerner
Memorializes Congress to compel the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to fulfill its duties
regarding inspection and testing of imported seafood.
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