A class-action lawsuit filed by a shopper in the U.S. state of Illinois claims that bags of frozen shrimp sold by retail giant Walmart contain fewer shrimp than advertised.
The suit alleges that Walmart is counting the weight of the ice glaze utilized to prevent freezer burn on shrimp in its weight for the product, so when the bag is thawed out and drained, the product contains fewer shrimp than claimed. According to the lawsuit, the bags contain roughly 11 percent fewer shrimp than advertised.
The lawsuit was filed by Elijah Baptist on 8 October in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois.
According to The Sun, Baptist claimed to have purchased several bags of Walmart’s Great Value shrimp in recent years but only discovered the alleged mismatch between the label weight and the thawed and drained weight in June of this year.
Baptist claims the company is liable in misleading customers and violating Illinois state consumer protection laws.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has long prohibited companies from counting the added weight of the glaze toward the product weight of seafood.
“FDA has received a number of complaints from seafood trade associations, the seafood industry, and other Federal agencies concerning recent increases in the fraudulent practice of including glaze (ice) as part of the weight of frozen seafood such as shrimp, lobster, and fish fillets,” the government said in a 1991 letter to the seafood industry. “We request that you take prompt action to assure that any frozen seafood you sell does not include the weight of the glaze in the net weight. Failure to promptly correct any such violations can result in regulatory action such as detention, seizure, injunction, or criminal prosecution being initiated by the Food and Drug Administration without any further notice to you.”
