'Shrimp fraud' rampant at many Gulf Coast restaurants, new studies find

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

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. Only two of the 44 restaurants sampled were serving authentic shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico, a study found.

The tests in other cities yielded similar results. In Biloxi, 82% of the restaurants "were defrauding consumers about what they were buying," SeaD said. In Galveston, 59% of the 44 restaurants it sampled served imported shrimp while claiming they were caught locally. In Baton Rouge, researchers sampled menu items at 24 restaurants and found nearly 30% – more than 1 in 4 – were misrepresented.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/shrimp-fraud-found-rampant-many-173137438.html

[BOSSHOG]

1. That is a very big deal on the Gulf Coast

It was happening on a smaller scale when we lived there, near Gulfport, several years ago. It’s putting a big hurt on local shrimpers.

[Silent Type]

4. Is local shrimp that much more than shrimp shipped from foreign countries? Especially if tariffs imposed.

[BOSSHOG]

7. Way back

THe price of domestic shrimp was more expensive than imported and the gulfs environment went through trauma with hurricanes and oil spills. And the implied notion that restaurants just weren’t being honest.

[Silent Type]

9. Thanks. Do agree they should be honest. Don't think I've ever had bad shrimp. I even like Rock Shrimp.

[BOSSHOG]

10. Shrimp Po Boys and Catfish Filet Platters

Are two of the many things I miss about living 50 miles from New Orleans.

[NoMoreRepugs]

2. ShrimpGate is about to be the next Congressional hearing.

[LeftInTX]

3. Fake Gulf of America Gate

[madaboutharry]

5. Restaurants are the biggest liars.

There is a famous scandal from back in the 1950's that involved the iconic and now defunct L.A. restaurant, The Brown Derby, It was one of those places where movie stars hung out. One of the draws, apart from the Hollywood glamour, was what they advertised as their very own 'Homemade Ice Cream."
Apparently they pissed off the wrong employee who blew the whistle to the media. The "Homemade Ice Cream" was not homemade at all. It was purchased by the gallons from Thrifty Drug Store.

My dad worked as a cook when he was young and told me that people have no idea how much "fresh" stuff comes out of a freezer.

[jls4561]

6. After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, I'm not surprised that there is less fresh seafood available on the Gulf.

How will the Drumph tariffs affect the price and availability?

[taxi]

8. 20 years ago it was the grouper. Here is an excerpt from 2006 about fake grouper in restaurants.

Fine for Fake Grouper Doubles
First-time offenders will now have to pay at least a $500 administrative fine.
...
Amid continuing reports of fake fish on restaurant menus, Florida regulators announced Thursday they are doubling the minimum fine on people caught cheating.
...
Of 168 restaurants cited by the DBPR for menu substitution between Jan. 1, 2006, and Feb. 28, 2007, 70 percent of the citations were for fake grouper.

The most common substitutes were varieties of Asian catfish known as pangasius, basa, ponga, panga, swai and sutchi.

https://www.theledger.com/story/news/2007/06/02/fine-for-fake-grouper-doubles/25779712007/

Maybe this is a maga thing, you know, outsourcing and increasing profits?

[Phoenix61]

11. A local restaurant I worked at got caught for selling

white fish as grouper when a bunch of customers got food poisoning and the health department inspected what they were serving. Other than that incident, the fish tasted great it just wasn’t grouper and should have even much cheaper.

[taxi]

13. I agree, whitefish is good.

They are an easy fish to catch, if you have a boat. Eventually I figured out it's cheaper to buy grouper at the store.

[Mosby]

17. I used to do a lot of shopping at Restaurant Depot, a wholsale place for restaurants

In the frozen fish section they sold swai, which I have never seen on a menu.

I think there is a lot of misrepresented fish on menus. Around here it fake sea bass and orange roughy.

[taxi]

19. Now that's a head scratcher if there ever was one!

[ThoughtCriminal]

12. "Scully's Catch of the Day"!

?si=0IlWO6Gb2djcqZI9

[TheBlackAdder]

14. Seafood fraud has been rampant for decades down there and states turn a blind eye to it.

In one breath they want local fisherman to make money, but on the other hand, they want their restaurants to scam customers, many of which are tourists. There were articles about fish fraud, where expensive and local fish were being offered, but cheaper substitutions were made. Much of this is crime syndicate conspiracy level actions--the distributor, the wholesaler, and the restaurant/store equally participating in this fraud.

When you have 96% fraud, you know it's systemic crime. State inspectors are probably on the take.

[Crepuscular]

15. ...

Seafood fraud occurs all over. In Michigan, much of the Perch that restaurants advertise as fresh "great lakes" perch is actually frozen Zander imported from eastern Europe, obtained at a fraction of the cost of what local caught Perch sells for. If you see an "all you can eat" perch dinner in Michigan, you can bet that you're eating Zander.

[BoRaGard]

16. G.O.P. must shoulder ALL THE BLAME for this

happening on their watch.

"Why do republicons hate American shrimp?" - Forest Gump (D)

[Mountainguy]

18. Is it that many restaurants....

Or is it a shrimp supplier passing them off as local to all of them.

Hard to believe that many independent restaurants would all be lying instead of one or two big suppliers.

As was mentioned above, the deepwatar horizon spill is still hitting Gulf species. Crustaceans are less mobile and more likely to be impacted more severely from it.