Mislabeling of shrimp in the US cost consumers as they pay more for shrimp caught in US. Channel 2 Action News traveled to New Orleans where special agents from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) gave us an exclusive look inside the investigation. In an earlier investigation in 2008 it was found fresh wild shrimp caught in Georgia is beginning to be a commodity.
Mislabels not only pinch consumers but also hurts Georgia Shrimping Companies. It is said that if you buy or eat shrimp, there’s a good chance you’re getting shrimp raised in a foreign pond. The United States imports 90 percent of its shrimp from nations like Vietnam, Indonesia and China. Sometimes the shrimp is raised in filthy conditions or loaded with antibiotics or banned chemicals.
According to federal investigators they have suspected some shrimp processors were cheating and mislabeling shrimp. Now, they’ve caught some companies red-handed, substituting cheap imports in boxes labeled “product of the U.S.” NOAA special agent James Kejonen showed some of the 22,000 pounds of shrimp seized from two processors in Louisiana and one in Mississippi.
Kejonen told that it is a simple trick with huge profit margin for wholesalers. For instance two dollars a pound and mislabeling millions of pounds. Ronnie Anderson’s family has been shrimping in Louisiana for generations. He and his fellow shrimpers have heard the rumors of package fraud for years.
Federal investigators informed that mislabeling of imported seafood extends far beyond the shrimp docks of Louisiana. They say it’s a national issue. Kejonen said that the product is shipped nationally and not isolated to the coastal states, so pretty much anywhere in the U.S. you could be eating mislabeled shrimp.
