An Alabama House committee advanced legislation that would add penalties for retailers that fail to properly label seafood sold in the state.
State Representative Chip Brown, R-Hollinger’s Island, announced House Bill 444 on Monday. The measure would strengthen enforcement of labeling requirements for seafood sold in Alabama.
House Bill 444 would authorize the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries to conduct random genetic tests to determine the origin of restaurant seafood products and ensure compliance with existing labeling laws.
Lawmakers enacted a separate law in 2024, also sponsored by Brown, that requires food retailers and restaurants to label whether seafood is foreign or domestic and whether it is farm-raised or wild-caught.
“We’ve had this out there for a little over a year now, and we’ve found little problems and loopholes that exist in almost every piece of legislation,” Brown told the committee. “This is an effort to address those and make it more accountable for the restaurants and allow people to actually know what’s going on in the restaurants.”
In a statement released Monday, Brown said HB444 would strengthen enforcement and increase penalties for failing to properly label seafood.
“Our current labeling law is designed to inform consumers and encourage restaurants to use seafood products harvested in Alabama, but too many owners are exploiting loopholes or simply refusing to follow its requirements,” he said. “This legislation adds sharp teeth to the statute and includes strong penalties for restaurants that continue thumbing their noses at state law.”
Brown said many Alabama restaurants have not complied with the existing law.
“I was in a restaurant Friday night, went in there in a nice restaurant, looked down, had probably 15 seafood items on there, in Mobile, the seafood capital of Alabama—Mobile-Baldwin County—and not one of the items was labeled,” he said. “To me, that’s a trust issue. We should be able to trust our restaurants that they’re serving us what they say they’re serving us.”
House Bill 444 would require restaurants to label on menus whether seafood is domestic or foreign and whether it is farm-raised or wild-caught. It would remove the option of using signage in a restaurant to disclose a seafood product’s country of origin.
The bill would require the Alabama Department of Public Health to check seafood labeling during inspections. Restaurants that do not comply would lose five points from their posted sanitation scores.
HB444 would also require the department to regularly inspect seafood establishments to ensure compliance and to regularly and publicly publish the names and addresses of restaurants that violate the law.
“The Department of Agriculture contracts with a testing firm that has every DNA line of every shrimp in the world, and so they can come in and tell you if you say you’re serving fresh Gulf shrimp or fresh Mobile Bay shrimp, if it really is or if it’s caught off the coast of South America or Asia, wherever,” Brown said. “Also, they’re very close to perfecting oysters.”
SeaD Consulting, which conducts genetic testing on shrimp served throughout the Gulf Coast, publishes a register of Gulf Coast restaurants that agree to testing and properly label the origin of their shrimp.
Brown said his bill would similarly require the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries to publish a quarterly list of restaurants that undergo testing and are found in violation.
“What we’re looking at is a register of all the restaurants that did it bad, once a quarter, and hopefully with that we’ll be able to actually have not only enforcement but people actually following the law,” he said.
Representative Arnold Mooney, R-Birmingham, raised concerns about the reliability of testing technology and the potential burden on restaurant staff and operators.
Mooney said the National Fisheries Institute reports that genetic screening cannot reliably verify a seafood product’s country of origin. He also questioned whether the department could test species beyond shrimp.
“I guess I’m confused because on their site they clearly point out that seafood cannot be scientifically tested to verify country of origin,” Mooney said. “So, I’m kind of confused why Agriculture and the National Fisheries Institute are opposite on what they’re saying.”
“It’s an ongoing science,” Brown said. “It’s kind of like when we first came out with DNA testing, it got better and better and better. So, I don’t know if they haven’t updated their website because it is possible.”
Mooney said the Alabama Restaurant and Hospitality Association was not involved in drafting the bill, unlike the 2024 law. He said restaurant owners in his district have expressed concerns about complying with the proposal alongside the federal Country of Origin Labeling Act.
“They’re not supporting it, and the National Restaurant Association is opposing it as well. I’m just concerned we’re fixing to step into a mess without more understanding of this process,” he said.
“I just wish that there could be an opportunity to get everybody together on it. Things have moved really fast this year. I think we all see that, but I’d hope we have time to talk with our employers,” he added.
Brown said lawmakers passed the existing seafood labeling law after controversy in Mississippi involving the seafood restaurant Mary Mahoney’s. Its owners pleaded guilty last year to mislabeling frozen foreign seafood as fresh-caught Gulf fish.
“This is a problem. And it’s a problem for the consumer as well, because the consumer has a right to know if what they’re eating was raised in a ditch off the road in Vietnam, or if it’s raised off the coast of Alabama,” Brown said.
Lawmakers adopted an amendment to require the Alabama Department of Public Health to post test results at least quarterly and to clarify the state health officer’s role in enforcing the bill.
After receiving a favorable committee vote, HB444 advances to the House floor.
If Governor Kay Ivey signs it into law, HB444 would take effect on October 1, 2026.
