Shrimp Transparency Bill Signed into Law
May 14, 2026 | 7 min to read
Georgia Restaurants Now Required to Disclose If Shrimp is Foreign
Governor Brian P. Kemp signed HB 117 into law. The law amends Article 13 of Chapter 2 of Title 26 of Georgia’s state law to require food service establishments to disclose whether they are serving foreign imported shrimp. The new state law, in full, provides:
“All food service establishments in this state that serve foreign imported shrimp shall conspicuously display on their menus a disclosure by each menu item containing shrimp stating ‘FOREIGN IMPORTED,’ or on placards visible to the public ‘FOREIGN IMPORTED SHRIMP.’ This Code section shall not apply to a food service establishment operated by a state agency, as such term is defined in Code Section 48-8-14.”
With enactment, Georgia becomes the first state on the east coast of the United States to join Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas to adopt a law combatting misleading advertising of foreign, pond-raised shrimp that has devastated U.S. shrimping communities.
Existing Shrimp Transparency Laws
Because HB 117 has now become law, there are five states in the South Atlantic and Gulf of America regions that have moved to address misleading marketing of foreign, farm-raised shrimp in restaurants. These laws continue to be improved with experience, with the latest example being the enactment of HB 1466 in Mississippi that clarified and strengthened disclosure requirements and becomes effective in July 2026.
- Alabama (effective Oct. 2024): Requires all food service establishments to disclose whether seafood is imported or domestic and farm-raised or wild-caught.
- Louisiana (strengthened in Jan. 2025): Mandates explicit labeling and disclosure and prohibits misrepresentation of foreign seafood as domestic
- Mississippi (strengthened effective July 2026): Prohibits misrepresentation of imported seafood and crawfish as domestic and requires all seafood and crawfish to be labeled as imported or domestic or disclose country of origin
- Texas (effective Sept. 2025): Prohibits misrepresenting imported shrimp as “Texas,” “Gulf” or “Domestic” shrimp, while requiring disclosure of imported shrimp
- Georgia (enacted May 2026): Requires food service establishments to provide notice if they are serving foreign imported shrimp.
South Carolina’s HB 4248, which would require all sellers of shrimp in the state to disclose its country of origin, passed out of the House by a vote of 103 to 0 on April 14th, with an amended version limiting the disclosure requirement to sales of “raw” shrimp passed by the Senate by a vote of 42 to 0 later on April 30th.
“The enactment of HB 117 is a huge victory for Georgia shrimpers, who organized an effective grassroots campaign to ensure that consumers have the ability to choose U.S. wild-caught shrimp when they dine out,” said Blake Price, Director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance.
Read the State of Georgia’s Press Release, “Gov. Kemp Signs Legislation Protecting Georgia Agriculture and Natural Resources” (May 6, 2026) here: https://gov.georgia.gov/press-releases/2026-05-06/gov-kemp-signs-legislation-protecting-georgia-agriculture-and-natural
Review the text of Georgia’s HB 117 here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/HB-117-As-Signed-20252026-242391.pdf
Review the text of Mississippi’s HB 1466 here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/HB1466SG-1.pdf
Review the text of South Carolina’s HB 4248 here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/South-Carolina-Bill-4248.pdf
About the Southern Shrimp Alliance
The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) is an organization of shrimp fishermen, shrimp processors, and other members of the domestic industry in the eight warmwater shrimp producing states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas.