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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Southern Shrimp Alliance study reveals a majority of Charleston-area restaurants serve imported shrimp
MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WBCD) – The Southern Shrimp Alliance revealed, in a new study with SeaD Consulting, a majority of Charleston-area restaurants that claim to serve local shrimp are not actually doing so. SeaD Consulting randomly selected 44 restaurants throughout the region, in an attempt to bring transparency and awareness to the Lowcountry. Each of the restaurants selected advertise selling local shrimp. Charleston was the last and eighth stop for this study. The four identified restaurants that do serve domestically caught shrimp include Coosaw Creek Crab Shack, Grace & Grit, Rappahannock Oyster Bar, and Acme Lowcountry Kitchen. '70% of all the seafood eaten in the U.S. is done so at the restaurant level. Any deception done at this level is a detriment to not only our fishing community but also consumers coming down to the coast and wanting to enjoy fresh, local seafood,' Erin Williams, COO and co-founder of SeaD Consulting, said. 'Not only that, your restaurants are honestly sourcing to consumers who are paying that premium to get that quality seafood when competitors in their marketplace are not doing that.' The consulting firm discreetly tested these restaurants by order a shrimp dish, and bring some of it back to their lab. The researchers take a piece of tissue and run it through the RIGHTTest (Rapid ID Genetic High-Accuracy Test) which takes approximately two hours. The results show the species type. The other 40 restaurants are accused of shipping their supply in, which can be cheaper than harvesting local shrimp. However, officials said this deception is harmful to consumers and the local community. 'It's really important to be upfront with your customers especially – it's not cheap to eat out. You have your locals who come to your restaurant and you have all the tourists coming here, and they're assuming that what they're eating is a locally caught product. Not something that's caught thousands of miles away that's farm-raised, it's awful,' Bobby Simons, owner of Acme, said. Simons works with local shrimpers in McClellanville and tells News 2 he maintains a long-term working relationship with them. Similarly, Rocky Magwood, president of the South Carolina Shrimpers Association, works with several other local restaurants. He said though the association did not request this study, Magwood hopes this now encourages more places to buy local. 'It's crazy to how this turned out to people are getting mad because they say 'oh they tested my restaurant', well if you're mad it's because you're not doing the right thing. Just understand, we're here to help you,' Magwood said. 'We're not even mad at the restaurants that wasn't selling fresh shrimp. Just call us and talk to us. We'll see what we can do to match your price and get to where we can get your business. We're just working people, we want to all work together.' The shrimpers association has a list of local restaurants that do sell local shrimp. Magwood said the consumer should also ask the restaurant if they do serve authentic shrimp. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Are you paying for authentic Gulf shrimp at restaurants?
LAFAYETTE, La. () — When it comes to buying seafood, most of us want to know exactly what we are paying for and where it comes from, especially if it comes at a higher price. The company recently found a correlation showing some restaurants may be providing imported shrimp, but advertising and selling it as authentic gulf shrimp. 'If you sell gulf shrimp, you get an average of $14 per plate. If you sell imported shrimp and claim, its Gulf shrimp, you get a similar average of about $14 a plate. If you sell shrimp and label, it properly as imported shrimp, you only get on average $10 a plate,' said founder of SeaD Consulting David Williams. An average of $4 more per plate makes a difference for restaurants. The issue SeaD Consulting has is that mislabeling is a profit-making tactic and is dishonest to the consumer. The shrimping and overall seafood industry has been in a decline because of its battle with cheaper imported products. This tactic prevents the domestic industry from flourishing once again. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now 'It's just not right. It's not right that that people are paying and thinking they're getting something good and they're not,' said Cheri Blanchard with the . A recent law mandates restaurants to label the origin of their seafood on menus. Williams says the restaurants that they find in violation have been reported to the necessary agencies. 'Department of Health is supposedly the ones who are in charge of this particular situation, and we would love for them to start enforcing it, using our information and testing procedures,' said Williams. You can report seafood fraud at a restaurant . Proposed state house bill could create independent airport district in Iberia Parish Pennsylvania woman was using Snapchat during hit and run that killed teen: Police Zydeco Unplugged introduces Alex Genealogy to Zydeco Extravaganza experience Police search for man who they say is now wanted in Louisiana and Texas FDA warns of 'rare but severe itching' after using popular allergy medications Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Yahoo
19 Baldwin County restaurants claiming imported shrimp is locally sourced: report
GULF SHORES, Ala. (WKRG) — An investigation into the Baldwin County restaurant scene and shrimp served has been finalized, leading to the finding of 19 restaurants making false claims, has learned. Baldwin County home listings rise 10%, sales prices up 7% According to a SeaD Consulting news release, the Southern Shrimp Alliance commissioned the group to genetically analyze shrimp dishes at 44 restaurants in the Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and Foley areas. This investigation into the restaurants began after genetic testing of shrimp at the 2024 National Shrimp Festival, which found that four out of five vendors , according to the release. The consulting group found that 25 of the 44 restaurants serve 'authentic Gulf wild-caught shrimp,' while 19 serve imported shrimp, claiming their shrimp was locally sourced. The group said they also found that the seven 'boil houses' were serving authentic, local shrimp. 'It's disheartening to see both festival vendors and local restaurants misleading consumers,' said the President of the Organized Seafood Association of Alabama, Ernie Anderson. 'Our shrimpers work tirelessly to provide high-quality, sustainable seafood. 'When establishments misrepresent their offerings, it undermines our industry and deceives the public.' Specially trained nurses now caring for sexual assault victims in Baldwin County The study found these restaurants to be serving locally sourced shrimp: Acme Oyster House Baumhower's Victory Grille Beach House Kitchen & Cocktails Blalock Seafood & Specialty Market Bubba's Seafood House Cotton's Restaurant Coastal Orange Beach De Soto's Seafood Kitchen Doc's Seafood Shack & Oyster Bar Duck's Diner Fish River Grill Flying Harpoon Foley Fish Company Fresh Seafood Market Gelato Joe's Italian Restaurant & Bar Gulf Bowl & Captain's Choice Gulf Shores Seafood King Neptune's Seafood Restaurant Lartigue's Fresh & Steamed Seafood Local and Company Food+Drink LuLu's Gulf Shores Moe's Original BBQ Picnic Beach Bar & Grill Rouses Market S&S Seafood Market Foley native Julio Jones retires from NFL News 5 is sharing SeaD's results after the group studied numbered, not named, samples, to prevent bias, according to a spokesperson. Unmentioned restaurants may be serving locally sourced shrimp, but may not have been included in this study. SeaD provided an overview of the findings, but not the full test results, upon request. According to the release, the 19 restaurants that misrepresent their shrimp will be urged to align their practices with Alabama labeling laws. There will also be follow-up testing. 'We only publicize the names of the restaurants who are supporting the local shrimping industry first, and will send letters to those restaurants found to be misrepresenting so they can address the issue and ensure it's not a supplier problem,' a SeaD Consulting spokesperson said in a statement to News 5. 'The names are also given to local authorities for review and enforcement.' Alabama enacted the Seafood Labeling Law in May 2024, which mandates that 'restaurants and retailers disclose the country of origin and whether seafood is wild-caught or farm-raised.' The release said penalties for violating the law include warnings and fines up to $1,000, but the Alabama Department of Public Health had been inconsistent in enforcing the law. 'Until more enforcement is in place, Gulf Shores area residents and visitors are urged to stay vigilant and ask for the country of origin of shrimp when served at restaurants, and if in doubt, demand proof of local sourcing by asking to see the box the shrimp came in,' read the release. Baldwin County Strawberry Festival warns of online vendor scams For this year's National Seafood festival, vendors must sell local wild-caught shrimp, and fines will be issued for vendors who do not comply, but it is unclear how this will be enforced. 'The U.S. shrimp industry is facing a crisis. Many of our competitors farm-raise their shrimp using forced labor, banned antibiotics, and have received billions in international development funding,' said John Williams, executive director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. 'American fishermen harvest premium-quality shrimp that grow naturally in abundant quantities right here in our local waters. Consumers want it. They prefer it. But, they cannot find it easily due to false advertising,' he said. Neil Costes contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Louisiana Crawfish Festival vendor sells Chinese mudbugs without required signage: report
Getty Images A food vendor at the Louisiana Crawfish Festival in St. Bernard Parish has served Chinese-sourced crustaceans and failed to disclose it as required under state law, organizers have confirmed. WVUE-TV Fox 8 reports organizers were made aware of the infraction when an attendee sent them pictures of a vendor using packages of foreign crawfish. Louisiana law requires fair food vendors, restaurants, seafood markets, grocers and other retailers to display signs that detail the origin of any foreign crawfish they sell. Crawfish Festival secretary Cisco Gonzales Jr. confirmed to Fox 8 that the visitor told organizers the vendor had no such signage. 'We know how important supporting local seafood is in St. Bernard Parish,' Gonzales said. 'You know, I come from a family of fishermen. A lot of my uncles and cousins are still down there doing that, and we want to respect that and we wanna make sure that our vendors are respectful of that, too.' The crawfish for all festival vendors are being checked, and they are being asked to display signage if they're serving foreign catch, Gonzales said. The Louisiana Crawfish, held annually for 50 years in Chalmette, started Wednesday and ends Saturday. The origin of seafood sold and served in Louisiana is under heightened scrutiny after Louisiana strengthened its source disclosure law, effective Jan. 1. Optional fines for offenses start at $15,000 for a first offense to $50,000 for third and subsequent offenses. Spot genetic testing from the Texas-based firm SeaD Consulting has revealed most merchants, eateries and vendors sampled are purveying local catch, but some are either knowingly selling foreign seafood or aren't aware of the labeling law. SeaD found four Lafayette restaurants out of 24 sampled were selling foreign shrimp passed off as local in a study it conducted last month. It conducted similar testing in New Orleans in January, when three of 24 restaurants sold undisclosed imported shrimp. In November, a joint investigation from Fox 8 and the Illuminator used SeaD testing and found that the large majority of vendors at a local festival and seafood market were providing catch from the Gulf of Mexico and area waters. SeaD Consulting does not disclose the names of businesses it discovers selling undisclosed foreign seafood, preferring instead to raise awareness of the state labeling law. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Something's fishy: Florida State research cracks the case on shrimp swap scandal
When it comes to seafood, people want the real deal – not some fishy bait-and-switch. But in the billion-dollar shrimp industry, it turns out diners might not be getting what they paid for: Eateries offering imported shrimp disguised as locally caught delicacies. David Williams, founder of Houston-based food safety tech company SeaD Consulting, has spent years diving into the murky waters of seafood sourcing. His team's research kept surfacing the same troubling question: Do consumers really know where their shrimp come from? 'Why would you want to be lied to?' Williams said. After all, no one orders a plate of shrimp expecting a side of deception. Here's why it matters: The seafood industry is swimming with imported shrimp, often from farms abroad that may use antibiotics and questionable practices banned here in the states. But restaurants aren't always upfront about what they're serving (sometimes even they don't know), leaving diners in the dark about what's really on their plates. And it takes business away from U.S. shrimpers. So in 2022, Williams took his concerns to Florida State University assistant professor Prashant Singh, hoping to crack the case of the sneaky shrimp swap. Singh was intrigued. "There is this saying, 'don't look for a great idea. Look for one great problem to solve.' SeaD Consulting gave me a problem to solve," Singh said, explaining why the proposal was accepted. With the help of SeaD Consulting researchers and Florida State University's Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology graduate students Samuel Kwawukume and Frank Velez, as well as assistant professor for health, nutrition and food science Leqi Cui, Singh took on the challenge. Singh, a food safety microbiologist who obtained his doctorate in food science from the University of Missouri, has an extensive background in researching dairy, poultry and beef. Researching seafood was a new area of exploration for him. "One day I suddenly realized I've got the ocean," he jokingly said upon moving to the Sunshine State in 2018, providing him a natural laboratory to expand his research focus. Williams is a commercial fishery scientist and has decades of experience under his belt. After speaking with fishermen working on the Gulf Coast, he realized the shrimp market was in jeopardy. He identified the dilemma as an "authenticity-in-the-restaurant problem," when he found the local "shrimp business was unable to support itself" because people were making substitutions by importing to save dollars on food supply. This ignited a research campaign funded by the nonprofit organization called Southern Shrimp Alliance. The group is made of fishermen, processors and other members of the domestic shrimp industry. In an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat in FSU's Sandels Building, Singh, Kwawukume and graduate teaching assistant Nethraja Kandula, demonstrated how their shrimp authenticity test – which has created ripples in the restaurant scene – was conducted. Tall refrigerators positioned on the side of the laboratory located inside the building on Convocation Way were filled with hundreds of samples. Glass cylinders with colorful chemicals and testing tubes with labels sat on the counters and shelves next to testing devices. This testing site sparked national conversations about the quality of shrimp falsely marketed to consumers on a day-to-day basis. Taking a refrigerated bag of deep-fried shrimp pulled from restaurants, they took the crustaceans and peeled the crispy layers exposing the white meat to pick out a piece of flesh. This one piece of tissue, almost as fine as a strand of hair, was all they needed. "The test is designed to identify a DNA sequence," he said. "So, we just run the same test using all the samples." A portable Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machine helps the scientists identify the difference between domestic species of shrimp and imported species of shrimp. "We take a tiny piece of shrimp tissue with a disposable toothpick, which is used for DNA isolation by boiling the samples in lysis buffer (a solution that helps to open cells and release their contents)." That's then used to create a reaction and identify the presence of substances in the liquid sample. After two years of research, the findings were presented at conferences, including a gathering in August 2024 with people who study and monitor the shrimp industry. Singh informed attendees about the mislabeled shrimp products they were consuming by presenting his research. But after sharing his studies to groups about the fraudulent label, many were shocked, but it didn't spark a lasting impression that the team was looking for. "Nobody cared initially," he admitted after guests failed to follow up on what could be done to address the misrepresentation. SeaD Consulting realized that stating facts just wasn't enough to provoke change. The only way to create and maintain sustainable conversations was to essentially create "chaos." After licensing the FSU instruments for testing, Williams was hired by the Southern Shrimp Alliance to visit restaurants. He was initially visiting seafood festivals in major cities and found that a majority of the shrimp featured was imported, even though it was implied to be locally sourced. That is when he was asked to visit restaurants. Williams went undercover at restaurants and ordered shrimp dishes to collect samples for rapid testing, taking in a number of factors like décor and menu wording to determine if "deceptive advertising" was at play. "The implication that the customer perceives is the fact that it is domestic shrimp," he said referring to how a restaurant's ambience can create a false sense of authenticity. After Williams and Singh tested samples from a number of restaurants across the Southeast, they found that in major cities like New Orleans, 21 out of 24 restaurants passed the authenticity test. Tampa failed, with a majority of its restaurants actually offering imported shrimp on their menus, a prime example of the deception Williams mentioned. These region-based findings were shared with news outlets, notifying consumers across the nation that they may be getting bamboozled. Restaurants that failed the testing received letters from SeaD Consulting advising them to correct the false advertising, while those confirmed to sell domestic shrimp were named in the articles with praises. Restaurants that fail to comply with the guidance will have their names reported to news outlets as the consulting organization continues its research to support the sustainability of U.S. shrimpers and hold restauranteurs accountable for consumer transparency. Legislators in states like Louisiana have already created laws or regulations to correct these behaviors and protect local shrimpers. Florida legislators, who are preparing to start legislative session in March, have not filed any bills to address these concerns, based on a recent review, though Williams has not actively lobbied for them to do so. Singh believes the practice of offering cheaper substitutes for locally-sourced items doesn't end with shrimp. He believes that other product like grouper and snapper may be in the same boat, raising more questions about the accuracy of menu labels. Singh has reached out to other food industries to see how further research can begin. "I feel happy. It's like my research paid off," Singh said. "Reaching out and touching the life of those people. I don't want anything else but to support the local economy." Kyla A Sanford covers dining and entertainment for the Tallahassee Democrat. New restaurant opening up, special deals, or events coming up? Let me know at ksanford@ You can also email your suggestions for a future TLH Eats restaurant profile. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Bait and switch? FSU study, researcher dives into seafood mislabeling
