HONOLULU (KHON2) — There might not be any food that says “Hawaii” more than “fish and poi,” but with that popularity comes imitators. A couple of bills in the state legislature want to protect that.

Alicia’s Market is close to the airport and is a favorite spot for both locals and tourists.

“What’s the best seller? Roast pork, wasabi masago,” said Chris Kam, Alicia’s Market.

A new bill would force Alicia’s to adjust its signs for poke bowls to specify if the ahi is fresh, locally caught or brought in from somewhere else.

“I think it’s a good thing for Hawaii,” said Kam. “It’ll allow people to know where the fish comes from, you know so if they wanna buy local, they can buy local.”

Local fishermen said Hawaii’s ahi is among the best in the world and extremely popular.

“And with that global popularity, there’s now a lot, a lot of different sort of grades of this frozen carbon monoxide treated products that are kind of proliferating in the market space,” said Eric Kingma, Hawaii Longline Association Executive Director.

So this bill is just about educating the consumer and giving them choices.

“They can decide, you know, what price point they want to spend, where they want their ahi to come from,” said Kingma. “But really it’s about consumer awareness and consumer protection.”

“We have both simply because not everybody can afford to buy a full pound of fresh,” said Kam. “They might just want a little bit of fresh, and just a quarter pound, just to yeah try it out.”

There’s a similar bill regarding poi. Right now, poi sold in stores is all made in Hawaii and a bill wants to keep it that way, by requiring all things labeled “poi” to be made from taro grown locally.

“The point is that when these products are sold in Hawaii, people should know if they’re made by local people or whether it packaged in some factory in China or on the mainland and they’re presenting it to us as if it were made here,” said Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, Commerce & Consumer Protection Committee Chair. “People should get that choice.”

Both bills seem to be moving through the legislature pretty smoothly and supporters said the reason is simple.

Both bills are about protecting the brand of Hawaii and what it means to be a product of Hawaii.

“The Hawaii brand is strong, that’s why we’re a such popular tourist destination,” said Keohokalole. “And so the last thing we want is our most local, most Hawaiian products to be made outside of Hawaii, for someone else’s profit who’s not from Hawaii.”