Tag Archives: shrimp fraud
Amid ‘shrimp fraud’ reports, Tampa Bay area shrimpers need support
When restaurants charge a premium for Gulf-caught shrimp and pocket the extra profit by serving farm-raised imported shrimp, they’re denying local shrimpers a fair income. A recent study by SeaD Consulting revealed that 42 out of 44 Tampa Bay area restaurants surveyed were falsely passing off imported shrimp as locally caught. Local shrimpers say the effects of this kind of shrimp fraud go beyond betrayed diners. Shrimper Merritt Joseph Latino has been in the business for over 17 years. On one arm, underneath an anchor tattoo, the words “shrimpin’ ain’t easy” are permanently emblazoned in ink. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:38
Seafood-testing campaign ahead of Super Bowl raises awareness of foreign shrimp
A new round of genetic seafood testing conducted for a state advisory panel detected foreign shrimp that was falsely presented as domestic in a small percentage of the restaurants sampled in New Orleans, despite a new state law that forbids the practice. SeaD Consulting, a Houston, Texas, company, made headlines last year when it detected mostly foreign shrimp served at the Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival in Morgan City. It announced Monday that it tested seafood at 24 randomly selected restaurants ahead of Super Bowl LIX and found three had served foreign, farm-raised shrimp while billing their catch as local. “Customers deserve to know exactly what they’re eating, and our shrimping communities must be able to trust that restaurants using local shrimp imagery and language are genuinely selling that product,” Louisiana Shrimp Task Force member Andrew Blanchard said in a statement. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 10:42
