Until now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required the product, known as surimi, be labeled "imitation crab."
After a dozen years of lobbying, the seafood industry succeeded in getting permission to drop that unappealing description. Instead, it may now use a new, long-winded label: "Crab-flavored seafood, made with surimi, a fully cooked fish protein."
The phrase can be adapted for surimi made to resemble lobster, scallops, shrimp and other seafood.
The industry hopes the new label will help increase sales of an odd product that caught on in the boom for ethnic food, but which has had flat sales for the past decade.
