Committee backs bill requiring six months of invoices for imported seafood

Representative Jessica Domaine told the committee House Bill 725 would require vendors to retain invoices for imported seafood for six months to improve traceability in contamination investigations. "We're actually requiring vendors to retain invoices from imported seafood for 6 months," she said.

Commissioner Strain told senators the requirement would let auditors and health officials identify the point of origin when testing finds contamination and that records could be stored electronically or centrally. "We could set that up where they could do it electronically or they can store these electronically some some form of way," he said, adding recordkeeping is standard business practice for tax and audit purposes.

Senators asked whether retailers could submit records voluntarily to avoid keeping paper copies; the commissioner said centralization or electronic submission is possible but vendors generally must retain business records.

Senator Lan moved to report HB 725 favorably; the committee recorded no opposition in the transcript and the bill was reported favorably. The committee did not adopt substantive amendments during the hearing.