Georgia’s local seafood restaurants may need to make some changes in the near future.
On Wednesday, the state’s House of Representatives passed HB 117 almost unanimously with 165 for, seven against. It will now move on to a vote by the Georgia Senate.
What is HB 117?
If passed, HB 117 would require all commercial food service establishments in Georgia to clearly inform customers where their shrimp comes from if it’s imported. This would be done by either displaying a placard that says “Foreign Imported Shrimp” or labeling each menu item containing shrimp with “Foreign Imported.”
The bill was sponsored by Reps. Jesse Petrea, Al Williams, Rick Townsend, Buddy DeLoach, and Lehman Franklin.
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Reason for HB 117
Petrea explained how this is meant to be a transparency bill for consumers.
“It’s two prong: Americans should know what they’re eating, consumers should know there’s a lot of restaurants that want people to think they’re eating domestic shrimp. They aren’t, largely” he said. “Then, hopefully, if consumers know what they’re eating and know what they could be eating, perhaps it will increase the demand for domestic shrimp and help our shrimping.”
A previous version of this bill also included other forms of shellfish like oysters, scallops, and lobsters. Petrea said the current version served as a compromise with the industry and was meant to lessen the burden on businesses needing to update their menus.
Miguel Legoas is a Deep South Connect Team Reporter for Gannett/USA Today. Find him on X and Instagram @miguelegoas and email at[email protected].
