From shrimp to crawfish to oysters, Louisiana seafood is a culinary source of pride and a major draw for visiting out-of-towners. But despite Louisiana’s famed seafood culture, the state’s shrimping industry has been on the decline for years, as cheap foreign imports drive down prices and dominate the supply chain.
An ongoing pattern of restaurants labeling imported shrimp as Gulf products is making the problem worse, shrimpers and advocates for the flailing industry say. That’s where SeaD Consulting, a private company working with state agencies to promote the shrimping industry, comes in. The company uses a genetic test to sample dishes across the south — from Texas to North Carolina — and identify the shrimp’s region of origin.
The company has tested dishes in cities across Louisiana from Monroe to Houma. In the New Orleans area, it has randomly selected over two dozen restaurants within the city, in Metairie, on the West Bank and on the North Shore.
According to SeaD, New Orleans and Slidell had the highest percentage of authentic shrimp, with Metairie trailing closely behind. But on the West Bank, around a third of restaurants tested were serving imported shrimp without including the public signage required by Louisiana law…