On April 25, 2024, according to the U.S. Federal Register, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued Notice 2024-08676, which proposes to implement the Requirements for the Inspection and Certification of Fish and Other Seafood Products to improve the consistency and reliability of seafood inspection services through the use of generally accepted best inspection practices.

Implementation of the Requirements will benefit the seafood industry by improving seafood inspection services and making inspection results more accurate. Its key elements include facilitating the modernization of relevant definitions and management processes, facilitating the modernization of sampling plans, lot conformity determination processes, facilitating the modernization of the use of inspection and certification marks, expanding the scope of inspection to cover products for human consumption and products for non-human consumption (e.g., pet products), facilitating the modernization of the U.S. grading standards, and more.

The notice will be officially published in the Federal Register on April 26, 2024, and comments should be returned within 30 days.