Businesses that must follow these rules

You need to follow the labelling rules if your business serves seafood for immediate consumption in Australia. Immediate consumption means the food is ready to eat as soon as you give it to a customer. It doesn’t matter if they eat it in your business, take it away or get it home delivered.

Hospitality businesses that must follow the rules include:

• restaurants,
• cafes,
• pubs and clubs,
• takeaways and fast-food venues,
• food trucks,
• market stalls selling ready-to-eat food,
• hotels and motels serving food (including room service),
• casinos,
• amusement parks.

Dishes you need to label

You need to label seafood dishes that you market as being or containing seafood. This usually means the name or description of the dish on your menu either:

• refers to seafood. For example, fish and chips, chilli prawns or salt-and-pepper squid,
• is commonly associated with containing seafood. For example, surf and turf (steak topped with seafood) or ceviche (fish marinated in citrus juice).

You must state the origin of seafood ingredients in these dishes, including:

• fish and eels,
• crustaceans, such as prawns, shrimp, lobster and crab,
• molluscs, such as oysters, mussels, scallops and clams,
• other aquatic animals, such as jellyfish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers,
• the eggs or larvae of aquatic animals, such as caviar or roe.

It doesn’t matter if the seafood is from salt water or fresh water.

When you don’t need a label

You don’t need to tell customers the origin of:

• dishes that you do not market as being or containing seafood. For example, a ‘supreme pizza’ that includes a small amount of anchovies,
• seafood in liquid or powder form. For example, fish sauce, prawn oil or shellfish stock,
• shelf-stable food (food that doesn’t need to be kept in the fridge) made of chopped, diced, minced, pureed or shaved seafood. For example, shrimp paste, canned tuna or bonito flakes,
• seafood served at a fundraising event,
• seafood you serve more than 24 hours after the customer orders it. For example, a special Valentine’s Day set menu that customers must book in advance.

You also don’t need to label reptiles, amphibians, mammals, artificially created seafood (such as lab-grown fish) or food with a special medical purpose.

If you need help working out if you need to label a particular dish, contact Consumer Affairs Victoria.

How to label your dishes

You must label the origin of your seafood in a way that is obvious to the customer before they order. For example:

• on your printed and online menus (including takeaway menus),
• on a menu board, 
• on a clear sign in your business.

Make sure your labels are clearly visible, easy to read and written in English.

There are 3 ways to label the origin of your seafood ingredients:

• single letter AIM labels,
• detailed AIM labels,
• if all your seafood is either Australian or imported, you can use a single statement rather than labelling each dish.

You can’t use a single statement if your business uses both Australian and imported seafood.

You choose the type of label that works best for your business

Single letter AIM labels

This labelling method uses a single letter to show where the seafood in a dish comes from:

Example menu items: single letter AIM labels

Example menu items: single statement