Undercover seafood testers sampled a selection of restaurants in the Shreveport area this month and detected what they say is the highest shrimp fraud rate they have recorded to date in Louisiana.
SeaD Consulting, a food testing company that has been making headlines for uncovering seafood fraud at restaurants and festivals across the Gulf Coast, announced in a news release Wednesday that a "troubling" 58% of the restaurants sampled were deceptively serving foreign shrimp falsely presented as if it were domestic in violation of state law.
The company's use of genetic testing found a total of 17 out of 24 restaurants sampled, or 71%, served foreign farm-raised shrimp. Fourteen of those, or 58%, did so deceptively by mislabeling the country of origin or refusing to indicate it on their menus or restaurant signage.
The sampling, taken March 8-10, is so far the highest inauthenticity rate the SeaD has recorded in Louisiana since it first launched its testing efforts last year at the Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival in Morgan City.
The company does not identify the restaurants that aren't following the state's labeling law, opting instead to raise awareness of its existence.
SeaD executive Erin Williams said six of the restaurants were "blatantly being deceptive" by explicitly mislabeling their dishes as "Gulf shrimp" rather than just falsely suggesting it.
It is illegal under federal and state law to mislabel imported seafood as local and can result in fines or other penalties. In some instances, seafood fraud offenses at the federal level can yield criminal charges or even prison time, such as in the 2024 convictions of two Mississippi restaurant owners, one of whom was sentenced to eight months in prison.
Local seafood was once easy to find in Louisiana, but an influx of cheap foreign catch, particularly shrimp and crawfish, has flooded the market over the past two decades.
Williams said she believes there is less public awareness in the Shreveport area of the foreign seafood problem and the plight of the coastal communities that depend on commercial fishermen.
In the past few years, state and federal authorities began cracking down on restaurants that mislead their customers into thinking the foreign seafood they're eating is wild-caught from the Gulf of Mexico. Some establishments do this through vague dish descriptions or suggestive dining room decor such as nets or photos of shrimp boats on their walls -- practices that the Federal Trade Commission announced could be illegal last year.
For more than a decade, Louisiana law has specifically required restaurants, eateries and other food establishments to state on their menus the country of origin of any shrimp and crawfish being served. The same requirements apply to food vendors at fairs and festivals.
However, a 2023 review of state enforcement records revealed that many restaurants had not complied with the laws. Louisiana health inspectors issued thousands of citations to restaurants but levied no fines against them.
Some establishments have found creative ways around the laws by using vague menu descriptions, such as "Local shrimp served when available."
In an effort to strengthen enforcement, state legislators recently enacted heavier fines for violators and updated Louisiana's menu labeling statute. Still, a January meeting of the legislature's Seafood Safety Task Force exposed some loopholes and contradictions in the new law, so it will likely undergo additional changes when lawmakers convene for their 2025 session beginning April 14.
SeaD Consulting launched its testing efforts last year using undercover inspectors to purchase shrimp dishes from vendors and restaurants. The inspectors run the shrimp through a rapid field testing kit that examines seafood tissue genetics in a process similar to the way medical professionals detect viral infections.
Dave Williams, a commercial fishery scientist and SeaD Consulting's founder, developed the test in collaboration with Florida State University microbiologist Prashant Singh. Their process has been published and undergone peer review in a scientific journal.
In December, the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force, an advisory panel for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, asked SeaD Consulting to analyze shrimp from restaurants across the state in an effort to eliminate consumer seafood fraud. Its analysis includes sampling batches of 24 randomly selected restaurants in different cities across the state.
"This is a blow to the culture of Louisiana, where authenticity in food is paramount," Louisiana Shrimp Task Force Rodney Olander said in the press release. "When consumers are misled, it hurts local shrimpers and damages the reputation of our beloved seafood industry. We have the support of Southern Louisiana, but clearly not the entire state."
In addition to its latest results out of Shreveport, the company's testing of sampled eateries found a 30% shrimp fraud rate in Baton Rouge in December 2024, a 13% fraud rate in New Orleans in January, and a 33% fraud rate in Lafayette in February.
SeaD said it has furnished the names of all the restaurants found to be fraudulently serving imported shrimp to the Louisiana Department of Health for review and enforcement. The Health Department could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday.
The seven restaurants in the sample found to be serving authentic Gulf of Mexico shrimp: