U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is calling for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take action to prevent the misuse of the name “Alaska pollock” by foreign exporters who the senator said are profiting from its use.
Specifically, the senator, in a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, said Russian pollock producers are labeling their product “Alaska pollock” even though it is fished in Russian waters.
In the letter, the senator urged Hamburg to change the acceptable current market name of “Alaska pollock” to simply read “pollock.”
“This change in nomenclature is necessary to minimize consumer confusion and avoid ongoing misrepresentation of the origin of pollock that is purchased and consumed in the United States,” Murkowski wrote.
Murkowski said in 2012 alone, 113 million pounds of pollock harvested in Russia were sold in the United States as “Alaska pollock.”
The senator’s letter follows up on a similar letter from September 2014. A spokesman for the senator said the new letter was timely given recent news about a Russian pollock vessel that sank in April, reportedly carrying illegal migrant workers.
The same recent news prompted another senator, Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., to bring up the same subject in a recent hearing, also speaking with an FDA official.
