European and Australian seafood packaging standards. Greenpeace is intensifying its calls for seafood labelling reforms following the foreign frozen berry-linked hepatitis A outbreak affecting 19 people this month and a scombroid poisoning incident from imported tuna at a CBD cafe this week. It is spearheading the Label My Fish campaign – backed by celebrity chefs, academics, and Taronga Zoo and Zoos Victoria – that says clearer labelling will encourage the use of sustainable fishing methods, boost the local fishing industry and lift public health protections. The EU, which accounts for about a quarter of the world's seafood market, requires the origin, species and method used to catch or farm be declared on seafood labels. Australian rules fall well short. Independent Senator Nick Xenophon said the EU standards may not be suitable for the Australian market.

"We need to pick the best aspects of the European system, because it's still early days for them. There might be some teething problems," he said. Mr Xenophon, a member of the Senate inquiry into seafood labelling last year, said his first priority was to push laws that would require fish sold at cafes and restaurants to be labelled Australian or imported, mirroring laws in the Northern Territory. The legislation reflects the one and only recommendation delivered by the inquiry in December. It will be put up next week. Glenn Sterle, Labor senator and chair of the inquiry, was unimpressed by Prime Minister Tony Abbott's announcement on Thursday that he had asked the Industry Minister and Agriculture Minister to prepare a submission on country-of-origin labelling for cabinet. "The hard work's already been done. We've had the public hearings, we have the evidence and written our report," he said.

"He doesn't need another inquiry. They're only reacting now because the political blowtorch is on them and they can't duck and dive." Mr Sterle said for now he was unsupportive of Greenpeace's aim to see EU's standards replicated in Australia. He called the EU's labelling system "way over the top". "At the moment we don't need to know which river the fish was caught in, which barramundi farm, because it's too onerous and the argument becomes about red tape," he said. "We need to keep it as simple as possible." Grahame Turk, chair of the National Seafood Industry Alliance, says the industry body is demanding country of origin information on seafood "right through the chain" and for the Australian Fish Names Standard to be mandatory. But he does not support calls for the method of catch to be mentioned on labels.

"Some NGOs have really demonised some methods of catch, like longlining and trawling, whereas the science doesn't support that," he said. "Consumers don't know enough about catch method to evaluate and they may be misled." Despite the fact 70 per cent of seafood consumed in Australia is imported, Mr Turk said the EU's tough standards were not appropriate here. "And certainly not on Australian product because our fisheries management are in the or three or four [per cent] in the world. There really isn't an issue here," he said.