A woman washing a large amount of raw prawns

From 1 July 2026, hospitality businesses in Australia must tell customers whether the seafood they serve is Australian, imported or a mix of both. These country of origin labelling rules for seafood are part of the Australian Consumer Law.

If you supply seafood to one of these businesses, you must say where that seafood comes from. This helps the business label their dishes correctly for consumers.

Information you need to provide

You must give a hospitality business that buys your seafood the country of origin information they need to meet their labelling obligations.

At minimum, you must tell them whether the seafood product you sold them is:

  • Australian
  • imported
  • mixed (it includes both Australian and imported seafood)

If you already give your customers more detailed origin information, you can continue to do this. For example, you can tell them the specific country or countries the seafood comes from (such as New Zealand or Thailand).

You must give your business customer this information in writing if they ask you for it. However, it’s a good idea to provide the information in writing as soon as you sell or deliver the seafood to the customer.

If you don’t know where your seafood comes from, ask the business that supplies it to you. They must give you this information in writing when you ask.

When you don’t need to provide origin information

You don’t need to provide origin information if your seafood is covered by the separate country of origin labelling rules for retail food products. For example, it is a pre-packaged seafood product sold in a shop.

Get help

If you have any questions about these seafood labelling rules, contact the consumer protection agency in your state or territory:

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