If you haven’t looked closely at packages of raw fish or shellfish in the grocery store lately, then you don’t know Kodiak Safeway has already implemented country of origin labeling ahead of the April 4 deadline.

This federal legislation mandates that, as of Monday, all raw fish and shellfish sold in fish markets and grocery stores be labeled with its country of origin and its method of production, either wild caught or farmed.

For example, the label on a single frozen basa fillet at Safeway now reads, “farmed, product of Vietnam.” And the label on three-quarters of a pound of scallops tells the consumer it’s wild-caught in the United States.

Getting this legislation passed and in place has been a struggle in the face of strong opposition from meat producers and retail associations, but seafood consumers finally have one more tool in selecting the fish products they want, said Laura Fleming, public relations director for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.

“ASMI has been squarely behind Sen. Ted Stevens and the congressional delegation in their efforts to pass COOL legislation because the Alaska seafood industry has everything to gain in the marketplace. Alaska seafood is a hot item.

“This is consumer-driven legislation,” Fleming said. “People want to know where their fish comes from and how it was caught. They believe they have the right to know.”

Joe Gulley, formally of Kodiak and now the district manager for Carrs/Safeway in Anchorage said Carrs/Safeway has been involved in the COOL development process for two years.

The law originally came out of California as a marketing effort to promote U.S.-produced agricultural products, Gulley said. Right now it applies strictly to raw seafood. COOL for beef, pork and lamb is on hold until Sept. 30, 2006, but regulation is still in the political process, he said.

Compliance with COOL for raw fish and shellfish requires significant and costly changes for retailers. Documenting where a product came from and how it was caught has to be tied into sales and labeling. This means stores have to train staff, change technology and expand record-keeping, Gulley said. The cost is substantial, in the millions for retailers nationwide.

In fact, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service Web site, recordkeeping costs alone were estimated at $44.6 million for the first year and $24.4 million a year after that.

And penalties for noncompliance with the law are extremely stiff, Gulley said. And they are per incident. If a retailer has two mislabeled products in a case, that’s two separate violations.

“We’ve taken it (COOL) seriously from the beginning,” Gulley said.

Larger stores with seafood departments will feel the most impact.

Where fillets are displayed on a tray, for example, the sign in the case and the individual label on a custom-packed bundle of fish must identify country of origin and method of production. When the fish handler finishes one case and opens another, that whole chain of identification from the sign in the case to the checkout stand has to change, Gulley explained.

Furthermore, food retailers keep records of everything they sell for at least two years. Stores have to find storage for this information, Gulley said.

“We have the resources to be able to implement this law,” Gulley said. Smaller retail stores may be affected even more heavily.