One Louisiana seafood festival has done a better job of living up to its name.
In a complete turnaround from last year, all seven vendors sampled at the Morgan City Shrimp and Petroleum Festival served authentic Gulf shrimp at the Labor Day weekend event, testing showed. At the same festival last year, four out of five vendors sampled sold imported shrimp advertised as local.
The investigation in Morgan City marked a yearlong effort by a food technology company to conduct genetic testing at seafood festivals and restaurants around the region. Traveling from North Carolina to Texas, SeaD Consulting discovered that scores of restaurants were falsely advertising their shrimp.
“I am so pleased,” said Dave Williams, CEO of SeaD Consulting. “It’s very difficult to get people to change. Finally, (the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival) got their house in order and I’m very proud to say we had something to do with it.”
The company’s rapid genetic testing helps address a problem plaguing the floundering coastal industry. For years, shrimpers have struggled to compete against cheap imports and a pattern of fraudulent mislabeling at seafood restaurants. Around 90% of shrimp sold in the United States is farm-raised and imported, according to the Louisiana Shrimp Association.
Kermit Duck, a commercial shrimper in Morgan City, said in a statement that the festival “finally represents Louisiana shrimpers.”
“Without the exposure in the press last year, visitors to the festival would likely still be served imported shrimp,” he said.
A festival organizer was not immediately available to comment.
Stricter seafood rules
A new state law that recently took effect seeks to address the mislabeling problem. As of Jan. 1, Louisiana restaurants are required to clearly state the country of origin of the shrimp and crawfish that they’re selling. Restaurants in violation could face thousands of dollars in fines.
The Louisiana Shrimp Task Force, which reports to the state wildlife agency, hired the food tech company to conduct this testing. SeaD releases its Louisiana findings to the wildlife agency, and enforcement authorities in the health department can view the data, Williams said.
Festival-goers eat local shrimp dishes during Louisiana Shrimp Fest/ Shrimp Aid at the Broadside in New Orleans, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
While the company has found that some Louisiana cities are still mislabeling their shrimp, Williams described the state as a “guiding light for authenticity,” especially New Orleans and Slidell. In the two southeast Louisiana cities, around 90% of restaurant shrimp was found to be authentic.
But farther along Interstate 10, the figure drops, Williams said, and in central and north Louisiana cities, the amount of authentic Gulf shrimp dips below half.
Other states fared far worse, said Williams, a commercial fisheries scientist by trade. Genetic testing found that 96% of restaurants in the Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida, area were serving imported shrimp while implying their food was local.
“A lot of the time, people think they’re eating good fresh seafood and they’re not,” Williams said. “We’re trying to stop that from happening.”
A festival-goer wears shrimp boots.
Concerns over imported shrimp made national headlines last month, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration detected a radioactive chemical in raw frozen shrimp imported from an Indonesian company.
“I believe in homegrown Louisiana shrimp, fresh out of the Gulf, not radioactive,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-Madisonville, said Thursday on the U.S. Senate floor. “But I understand some stores prefer to buy foreign shrimp because it is cheaper.”
