California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed a lawsuit against five seafood companies for alleged violations of Proposition 65 and California’s Unfair Competition Law.
Testing conducted by the state’s Department of Justice found levels of both lead and cadmium on the companies’ fresh and frozen packaged seafood products which would require a Proposition 65 warning.
The lawsuit alleges that the seafood importers, distributors, and wholesalers, including Pacific American Fish Company, Rhee Bros, Seaquest Seafood Corporation, Jayone Foods, and Clearwater Seafoods, failed to protect consumers from lead and cadmium present in their products.
“When California’s consumers, restaurants, and supermarkets purchase seafood, they shouldn’t have to worry about whether the products they’re buying contain toxic chemicals,” said Attorney General Becerra. “The seafood industry has a responsibility to ensure the safety of its products – and to warn consumers of any risks. I hope this lawsuit serves as a warning to any company that might skirt its responsibilities under Proposition 65. The California Department of Justice will hold you accountable.”
As the Attorney General’s office explained, Proposition 65 precludes any person, in the course of doing business, from “knowingly and intentionally expos[ing] any individual to a chemical known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity without first giving clear and reasonable warning to such individual.”
The seafood products involved in the suit include packaged fresh and frozen whole or cuts of clam, cuttlefish, eel, goby fish, krill, mussel, octopus, oyster, periwinkle, sea squirt, sillago, silverfish, snail, and squid. According to the suit, the state is looking for a $2,500 penalty for each violation.