NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Football fans visiting New Orleans for the Super Bowl couldn’t get enough of the city’s culture, people and, most of all, the seafood. And thanks to a new state law, more of that seafood may now be guaranteed to be local.
Between cheering for their teams and soaking in the sights and sounds of the city, thousands of tourists packed local restaurants last weekend, indulging in New Orleans delicacies like shrimp, freshly caught from the Gulf.
“Very, very happy, you know,” said Andrew Blanchard, who sits on the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force.
The task force works to preserve the economic stability of the state’s shrimp industry, which has been increasingly threatened by imported seafood.
“About 96, 97 percent of what’s consumed in this country, it’s imports,” Blanchard said.
Testing Shrimp for Authenticity
To combat the flood of cheaper, foreign shrimp entering the market, the task force recently hired a company to conduct genetic testing on shrimp samples from New Orleans restaurants ahead of the Super Bowl. The goal? To see how many establishments were truly serving local seafood.
“The consumer should have a choice—that’s what we’re trying to accomplish here,” Blanchard said.
Using a test developed by SeaD Consulting, researchers can determine whether a shrimp sample was locally caught in the Gulf or imported from overseas. The company randomly tested shrimp at 24 New Orleans restaurants, revealing that all but three were serving local shrimp.
“New Orleans has actually broken a record for most authenticity,” said Dave Williams, who developed the technology alongside a microbiologist at Florida State University.
The test works by extracting a small tissue sample from the shrimp, placing it in a vial, and running it through a machine that copies the DNA. That DNA is then placed onto test strips to determine whether the shrimp is foreign or domestic.
The Louisiana Shrimp Task Force took notice of Williams’ work and hired SeaD Consulting to conduct similar tests across the state.
“It was a start on educating the consumer on domestic shrimp,” Blanchard said.
Stricter Labeling Laws Take Effect
A new law that went into effect in January aims to crack down on mislabeled seafood by imposing stricter penalties on vendors who sell imported shrimp and crawfish without proper labeling.
State Sen. Patrick Connick, R-Marrero, co-authored the legislation to close loopholes in previous laws.
“In the past, laws were on the books. If you violated it—slap on the wrist. It meant nothing,” Connick said. “This one has some meat attached to it.”
The law states that misleading or false labeling not only harms the state’s fishing industry but also puts consumers at risk, as imported seafood may contain contaminants banned in the U.S. Violators could face fines of thousands of dollars.
“It should be. For years, companies have used our heritage, have used our logos on the bayous to sell a foreign product,” Connick said.
Push for Federal Action
While the new law is a step forward, Williams noted that the three restaurants found selling imported shrimp had falsely advertised their dishes as authentic Gulf seafood—violating the new regulation.
“We really need enforcement agencies to step up and do more testing and more inspections in restaurants, ensuring truth in labeling,” Williams said.
Connick agrees that restaurants aren’t the only ones who need to be held accountable. Grocery stores and festival vendors must also accurately disclose the origins of their seafood.
Concerned about the sheer volume of imported shrimp being sold in Louisiana, Connick said he hopes federal action will follow. Just this week, U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., sent a letter to President Donald Trump, urging him to impose tariffs and increase trade enforcement on seafood imports.
“You got these tariffs being put on steel and everything else by the president. Why not put it on imported shrimp?” Connick asked.
Blanchard believes such measures would provide a much-needed boost to Louisiana’s struggling shrimp industry.
“We’re at a balance point where the industry stays or it goes,” he said.
For now, though, task force members say they are encouraged by the latest test results, which show that most New Orleans restaurants are serving local shrimp—especially with the world’s spotlight on the city during the Super Bowl.
The new law also applies to crawfish, and the Louisiana Department of Health is responsible for enforcing it.
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