Come January 1st, whenever you buy seafood at the store or order seafood at your favorite restaurant, you will know whether or not it comes from Louisiana.
A new law goes into effect that day requiring restaurants and distributors to clearly disclose whether the seafood was caught off the shores of Louisiana.
“Don’t mislead the public by selling Chinese shrimp or Indonesian shrimp under a label of like a Cajun brand type of product,” says Marrero State Senator Patrick Connick, who helped author Act 148.
Connick says there will be consequences for those who violate the new law.
“If it’s improperly labeled, there are heavy fines that can take place, and also the product can be removed,” says Connick. “For restaurants who falsely advertising (that) they’re selling Louisiana seafood when it’s not, the fines are anywhere from $200 to $2,000. And for the people who market and distribute the shrimp, it can go from $15,000 to $50,000.”
The new law comes after testing done on the shrimp at this year’s Morgan City Shrimp and Petroleum Festival found that four out of every five vendors were selling imported shrimp instead of shrimp caught off the Louisiana coast.
“They had testing done and showed that several of the vendors had shrimp coming from other countries, when the whole celebration is for Louisiana seafood,” Connick says. “They’re implying you’re buying a Louisiana product when you’re not. So that’s what we’re trying to fix.”
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