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COMMERCE GIVES SCALLOPER THE BOOT

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. -- Mar-Lees Seafood Co. here has been banned from the U.S. Commerce Department's seafood inspection program for one year due to several alleged violations of the program's rules.ed to another company, according to the Inspection Services Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a division of the Commerce Department."These events would lead us to conclude

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. -- Mar-Lees Seafood Co. here has been banned from the U.S. Commerce Department's seafood inspection program for one year due to several alleged violations of the program's rules.

ed to another company, according to the Inspection Services Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a division of the Commerce Department.

"These events would lead us to conclude Mar-Lees has no intention of complying with the inspection program's regulation," said Richard Cano, chief of NOAA's Inspection Services Division. "The company's continued inclusion in the program would discredit the program's credibility and be a disservice to its other participants."

A NOAA spokesman said Mar-Lees essentially misled buyers to believe its products had been inspected under the program when they had not. It was not an issue of unsafe product or mishandling of product, the spokesman added.

The NOAA federal voluntary seafood inspection program is a fee-for-service plan under which an estimated 22% of seafood consumed in the United States is inspected.

TAGS: Seafood