Seafood traceability issues in Chinese food business activities in the light of the European provisions

- The growth of Chinese communities abroad has increased Asian food importation.
- Chinese products often suffer from traceability and labeling non-compliances.
- 83% of the products checked had labels characterized by different irregularities.
- Ethnic communities present difficulties to conform to the European rules.
- Control and production systems should be harmonized at all levels of the food chain.

Over the years, the European Union has developed a comprehensive legal framework to ensure seafood traceability. In fact, in this sector, where the complexity of the marketing patterns has reduced the efficiency of controls, frauds are becoming widespread. Moreover, the rapid growth of Chinese communities has led to an increase of importations from Asia, which sometimes do not fully respect rules on traceability. In this study, we performed a survey on seafood products collected from the market of the Chinese community of Prato (Italy), to assess the frequencies and types of non-compliance in the light of the requirements established by the European traceability legislation on fisheries and aquaculture. Examination of labels and contents of Chinese seafood products imported to Italy found that 83% did not meet EU requirements for traceability.Overall, this survey put into light the difficulties of the ethnic communities to conform to the European rules, the need to adapt the control system to the fast developing trade reality at all levels of the chain and the advisability to create standards that could be adopted worldwide.