From catch to menu: Hursey Seafoods on simple seafood labelling.

Where’s it from? This is the question Kerry Houston’s staff receive regularly at Hursey Seafoods, located in Stanley, on Tasmania’s far northwest coast. Customers want to know what waters their seafood have come from, and from 1 July 2026, every hospitality venue in Australia needs to answer that question under new country of origin labelling rules.

Perched on the edge of a working fishing town, Hursey Seafoods draws customers who expect their seafood as fresh as the view.

‘One of the reasons we moved to Stanley was not just the incredible location, but was the access to incredible seafood,’ says Kerry, the Director of Hursey Seafoods. ‘You can come here and have southern rock lobster all year round, and you know it's incredibly fresh because it's been swimming literally 24 hours before you're seeing it on your plate because this is an amazing region for seafood.’

Kerry’s team introduced the new country of origin labelling on their menus 9 months ahead of schedule.

‘Around July 2025, we started to see a lot of information coming out across various platforms and social media about the new country of origin seafood labelling requirements,’ Kerry explains.

‘We decided to incorporate this in our next rollout of our seasonal menu in October. It didn't take us long and we knew we were ready for it for the following July.

‘It brings greater transparency so our customers know where it’s come from and helps tell the story about our local produce.’

The country of origin labelling model, the AIM, stands for Australian, imported or mixed, where you identify which country your seafood has come from.

‘It's quite an easy process to implement the model once you understand the requirements around the labelling and then breaking down your menu to work out what are your seafood components for each dish,’ Kerry says.

Country of origin labelling for seafood in hospitality settings is mandatory from 1 July 2026. For the team at Hursey Seafoods, it’s a change that’s been welcomed by customers and staff alike.

‘The feedback’s been great from our customers. We feel confident we’re being transparent about where our seafood comes from,’ Kerry says.

The process was quite straightforward. Make sure you're communicating, record keeping and displaying that information for your customers.
— Kerry Houston

From ocean to plate: transparency for customers

While Hursey Seafoods sources almost all of its produce from local waters, they proudly mark their calamari with an ‘I’ for imported.

‘The Australian calamari that we source locally is a much smaller calamari, which is naturally a little bit tougher,’ Kerry explains. ‘We found a lot of our customers prefer the Asian calamari, which is a more tender calamari, so we use that calamari to satisfy the palette for the customers coming through.

‘Other businesses won't have the same model as us, where we're getting 90% of our seafood produce from our own fleet,’ Kerry says. ‘It's a matter of introducing that labelling so you're transparent.’

A straightforward transition

For many busy hospitality operators, the thought of new compliance measures can sound daunting, but Kerry found the transition surprisingly seamless.

‘The process was actually quite straightforward,’ Kerry says. ‘It's just a matter of making sure you're communicating, record keeping and displaying that information for your customers’.

The team took a highly methodical approach: they broke down the menu, contacted their suppliers to confirm the origins of their ingredients and built a simple matrix. To make the new system business-as-usual for the kitchen and front-of-house staff, they printed and laminated fact sheets from business.gov.au/seafoodlabels. Now, assigning an 'A', 'I', or 'M' to the daily specials is as routine as noting a gluten-free option.

A better dining experience

Customers are naturally curious about where their food comes from, and the labels help answer those questions upfront. For a tourist hotspot, the visual AIM labels are especially helpful for international guests navigating language barriers, allowing them to understand the source of the seafood in their meals without needing a complex translation.

‘It brings greater transparency to where all our seafood is coming from,’ Kerry notes. ‘There is so much variety in seafood. This is just another layer that we've now brought in where we're identifying which country the seafood comes from. It's now business as usual.’

Kerry's advice to other hospitality operators is simple: dive in early. ‘It is easy to do, it's not overwhelming, you just need to work through it,’ she says. ‘You feel happy when it's done, because you've got your compliance all sorted out, clear information for your customers, and processes that support your business going forward’.

The feedback’s been great from our customers. We feel confident we’re being transparent about where our seafood comes from.
— Kerry Houston

Further information