Buying seafood: everything they’re not telling us

The report finds widespread non-compliance with mandatory seafood labelling laws in Spanish fish markets, with up to 70% of required information missing across 266 products. It argues that this lack of transparency hinders sustainable consumption and calls for stricter enforcement and clearer regulations by public authorities.

• An analysis of 266 products across 36 seafood stalls in Spanish fish markets revealed severe non-compliance with mandatory labelling, with up to 70% of required information missing.
• Specific mandatory data points were frequently absent: production methods were missing on 75% of products, scientific names on approximately 80%, catch or processing areas on up to 75%, and fishing gear types on up to 85%. Additionally, around 95% of products lacked expiration or minimum duration details.
• Voluntary information is almost entirely absent, with only 2% of seafood sold featuring additional voluntary labels, and over 20% of existing labels suffered from inadequate visibility or readability.
• Municipal markets are a critical sales channel, accounting for 25% of the total volume of fish consumed in Spain, yet they are currently in serious breach of regulations with a maximum compliance rate of 30%.
• The report concludes that Spanish authorities provide insufficient control and enforcement of labelling regulations, and that the existing legal framework is overly complex because it is spread across different European, national, and autonomous community legislative texts.

APA

ClientEarth (2018). Buying seafood: everything they’re not telling us. https://www.clientearth.org/media/itxlerop/buying-seafood-everything-they039re-not-telling-us-ce-en.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. Buying seafood: everything they’re not telling us. 2018. https://www.clientearth.org/media/itxlerop/buying-seafood-everything-they039re-not-telling-us-ce-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=Buying seafood: everything they’re not telling us |date=December 2018 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/itxlerop/buying-seafood-everything-they039re-not-telling-us-ce-en.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearth2018buying, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{Buying seafood: everything they’re not telling us}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2018}, month = dec, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/itxlerop/buying-seafood-everything-they039re-not-telling-us-ce-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }