HLS 25RS-269 ORIGINAL
2025 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 8
BY REPRESENTATIVE BAYHAM
SEAFOOD: Memorializes Congress to compel the United States Food and Drug
Administration to increase 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 statistics by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
6Administration (NOAA), United States (U.S.) imports of edible fishery products were 6.9
7billion pounds, valued at $29.7 billion; and
8 WHEREAS, the estimated percentage of consumption from seafood imports in the
9U.S. was eighty-six percent in 2022; and
10 WHEREAS, NOAA Fisheries statistics show that the U.S. Department of Agriculture
11reported that in 2023 the total value of imported seafood was $25.5 billion, with imports
12from Canada accounting for the largest share valued more than $3.6 billion in seafood
13products (14.1 percent), followed by Chile (13.0 percent), India (10.0 percent), Indonesia
14(7.9 percent), and Vietnam (6.4 percent); and
15 WHEREAS, the FDA is responsible for the safety of all fish and fishery products
16entering the U.S. and sold in Louisiana; and
17 WHEREAS, the FDA's seafood safety program is governed by its Hazard Analysis
18Critical Control Point regulations, which address food safety management through the
19analysis and control of biological, chemical, and physical hazards from raw material
20production and procurement and handling to manufacturing, distribution, and consumption
21of the finished product; and
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HCR NO. 8
1 WHEREAS, the FDA's regulations for imported seafood are supposed to measure
2the compliance of imported seafood with inspections of foreign processing facilities,
3sampling of seafood offered for import into the U.S., domestic surveillance sampling of
4imported products, inspections of seafood importers, foreign country program assessments,
5and the use of information from foreign partners and FDA overseas offices; and
6 WHEREAS, approximately ninety four percent of the volume of seafood sold in the
7U.S. is imported from other countries; and
8 WHEREAS, the Louisiana State University School of Renewable Natural Resources
9published a 2020 paper titled "Determination of Sulfite and Antimicrobial Residue in
10Imported Shrimp to the USA", which presented findings from a study of shrimp imported
11from India, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Bangladesh, and Ecuador and purchased
12from retail stores in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and
13 WHEREAS, a screening of these shrimp for sulfites and residues from antimicrobial
14drugs found the following: (1) five percent of the shrimp contained malachite green, (2)
15seven percent contained oxytetracycline, (3) seventeen percent contained fluoroquinolone,
16and (4) seventy percent contained nitrofurantoin, all of which have been banned by the FDA
17in domestic aquaculture operations; and
18 WHEREAS, although the FDA requires that food products exposed to sulfites
19include a label with a statement about the presence of sulfites, of the forty-three percent of
20these locally purchased shrimp found to contain sulfites, not one package complied with this
21labeling requirement; and
22 WHEREAS, the drug and sulfite residues included in this screening can be harmful
23to human health during both handling and consumption and have been known to cause all
24of the following: liver damage and tumors, reproductive abnormalities, cardiac arrhythmia,
25renal failure, hemolysis, asthma attacks, and allergic reactions; and
26 WHEREAS, the results of this study confirm that existing screening and enforcement
27measures for imported seafood are insufficient; and
28 WHEREAS, whatever the percentage of imports inspected may be, seafood is
29currently being imported that contains unsafe substances that put American consumers at
30risk; and
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HCR NO. 8
1 WHEREAS, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) directs the FDA to inspect
2each domestic high-risk food facility at least once every three years and each non-high-risk
3food facility at least once every five years; and
4 WHEREAS, according to a January 2025 report by the Government Accountability
5Office (GAO), the FDA has not met the mandated targets of the FSMA since 2018; and
6 WHEREAS, from Fiscal Year 2018 through Fiscal Year 2023, the FDA inspected
7an average of eight thousand fifty-three domestic food facilities per year versus just nine
8hundred seventeen foreign food facilities; and
9 WHEREAS, the GAO found that the FDA applies far more scrutiny to U.S.-based
10seafood processors than it does to their foreign competitors; and
11 WHEREAS, in contrast, imports of fishery products into the European Union (EU)
12are subject to strict standards including the requirement of an official certification based on
13the recognition of the competent authority of the non-EU country by the European
14Commission; and
15 WHEREAS, for all fishery products exported into the EU, countries of origin must
16be on a positive list of eligible countries; and
17 WHEREAS, imports of fishery products from non-EU countries must enter the EU
18via an approved border inspection post under the authority of an official veterinarian in the
19EU member state in question and each consignment is subject to a systematic documentary,
20identity, and physical check; and
21 WHEREAS, consignments which are noncompliant with EU legislation shall either
22be destroyed or, under certain conditions, redispatched within sixty days; and
23 WHEREAS, the FDA needs to improve oversight of imported seafood to, at
24minimum, match our foreign counterparts while simultaneously ensuring the seafood
25consumed in the state is safe.
26 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
27memorialize the United States Congress to take such actions as are necessary to compel the
28FDA to increase inspection and testing of imported seafood.
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HCR NO. 8
1 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby urge
2the United States Congress to support the recommendations of the GAO in its January 8,
32025, report (GAO-25-107571).
4 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
5presiding officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Congress of the
6United States of America and to each member of the Louisiana congressional delegation.
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 8 Original 2025 Regular Session Bayham
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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