‘Shrimp Fraud’ Rampant at Many Gulf Coast Restaurants
February 3, 2025 | 1 min to read
Restaurants along the Gulf Coast are misrepresenting imported shrimp as local catches, a study by SeaD Consulting revealed. Testing in cities like Baton Rouge, Biloxi, Galveston, and Tampa Bay showed many establishments falsely labeled shrimp, with the highest fraud rate at 96% in Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg. Customers seeking fresh Gulf shrimp are unknowingly consuming foreign imports instead, raising concerns about food authenticity.
Restaurants throughout the Gulf Coast are serving imported shrimp but telling their customers they’re feasting on fresh crustaceans fished in the Gulf of Mexico, a series of new studies found.
SeaD Consulting, a food safety technology company, tested shrimp from randomly chosen restaurants in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Biloxi, Mississippi; Galveston, Texas; and Tampa Bay, Florida. Researchers found a significant number of the restaurants were passing off their shrimp as locally sourced, even though they were grown on foreign farms and imported to the U.S.
The cities with the highest “shrimp fraud rate” were Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg, Florida, at 96%, according to SeaD Consulting.
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