In response to a 28 January letter from the National Fisheries Institute, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week determined that "white roughy" or "ruffy" is not an acceptable market name for basa and other fish in the Pangasiidae family.
In a letter to Lisa Weddig, NFI's director of regulatory and technical affairs, the FDA said fish classified as "roughies," such as orange roughy, are in the Trachichthyidae family and command a higher market value.
"We believe that marketing basa or any fish in the Pangasiidae family as 'white roughy' would be misleading to the consumer," said the FDA.
The FDA's policy is reflected in Import Alert-16-04, and its guide for acceptable market names for seafood lists criteria for determining whether a name is an acceptable market name. This information is available on the agency's Web site, www.fda.gov.
March 3, 2009
