Photos of a fishing boat can put a restaurant in big trouble

Did the seafood in the bowl actually come from these waters? | Photo: Shutterstock

Welcome to Government Watch, a weekly restaurant industry column focusing on policy, regulation, legislation and other government issues relevant to the restaurant industry. This week’s edition examines the FTC’s new informal guidelines on appropriate decor for a restaurant selling seafood.

The biggest seafood restaurant chains found an unusual warning in their inboxes Tuesday from a top federal regulator: Take a hard look at your decor if you don’t want to be subject to scrutiny. an investigation.

If it’s too reminiscent of a dinner at a seaside shack with fish caught in local waters just minutes before, it could be a problem, wrote Alvaro Bedoya, one of five commissioners who head the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC . You suggest that seafood be transported from boat to plate, with minimal time en route.

If it was not caught locally or in the wild, you are committing a scam and could be punished accordingly, Bedoya warned.

“Customers deserve to know when they are being served the genuine article and when they are being offered something else,” he wrote in the communication, which was published. posted on social media platform in addition to being sent to the 10 largest seafood chains in the country.

He emphasizes that he is only giving advice, without making accusations or signaling that a crackdown is underway. But, he warned the channels, “I will not hesitate to request an investigation by law enforcement if I am presented with credible evidence of a violation of the law.”

Strangely, the advice he provided in the attachment constituted neither legislation nor an actual set of regulations. Instead, the enlightenment it offered was a recent article from the FTC blog.

The September 18 post asked readers to imagine visiting a restaurant adorned with design elements such as fishing nets hanging from the ceiling, images on the walls of fishing boats and their crews, and tablecloths emblazoned with red, the white and blue of the American flag.

Menus and crew uniforms feature words like “Eat Local!” or “We catch them, you eat them!” The word “fresh” appears in various places.

“Given this scene, would you be surprised to learn that the fresh in-season catch was actually seafood grown, frozen overseas and shipped?” » wrote Julia Ensore, an attorney in the enforcement division of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

She argued that visual signals are actually advertisements, just like social media or website posts, and must be just as truthful. “The same rules apply,” Ensore wrote.

Call us cynics, but we never thought that a Bob Evans was actually a farm, or that any operation promising farm-fresh eggs actually had a chicken coop out back. Not once did we assume that First Watch paid seven figures for its Million Dollar Bacon. We also never thought that Olive Garden’s dinnerware had to be infinitely deep, because the chain claims to offer endless salad and pasta bowls.

The FTC has a worthy goal in trying to ensure that the seafood described on the menu or in advertisements actually matches what’s on your plate. Anyone who has spent 15 minutes in the business knows this trash fish are regularly presented as more expensive species at every link in the supply chain. It’s one of the industry’s dirty secrets.

But displaying a few lobster traps or shrimp nets to give a place a nautical vibe isn’t a scam, even if the restaurant only serves frozen shrimp.

The bigger concern is the apparent drift in what the FTC considers its policing. Do we really have to decide if the decor and ambiance match what a restaurant is actually selling?

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Peter Romeo has covered the restaurant industry since 1984 for various media outlets. As editor-in-chief for Restaurant Business, his current focus areas are government affairs, business, and family dining. He is also the publication’s unofficial historian.

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