More than 100 restaurants in Louisiana have been issued citations under the state’s new local seafood menu labeling law.
The law, which went into effect in Louisiana on 1 September, requires restaurants that sell imported crawfish and shrimp to disclose where the seafood was caught or grown.
As of 1 September, the Louisiana Department of Health found 102 violations out of 3,200 inspections of full-service restaurants, a spokesperson for the LDH told SeafoodSource.
"Of course, not all of the 3,200 restaurants would be subject to the law as they don’t all sell/service shrimp or crawfish," he said.
The Louisiana Restaurant Association did not respond to SeafoodSource’s requests for comment.
While many restaurant owners say they are not impacted, since they already use only local seafood, some are complaining about the new law.
Even though Tommy Cvitanovich, owner of Drago’s Seafood Restaurant, which operates a few restaurants in Louisiana, sells local seafood exclusively, he told Fox 8 the government should not interfere in restaurants’ business.
“It should be up to me to want to promote and advertise the fact that I am selling Louisiana products,” he said. “And if I’m not, if I’m misrepresenting it, then come after me.”
Cvitanovich also said it is difficult to label exactly where seafood is sourced.
“Were they harvested in Louisiana waters, international waters or the coast of Mississippi? Were they Mississippi shrimp brought from a Louisiana dock or Louisiana shrimp brought from a Mississippi dock?” he told Fox 8. “I can tell you that 100 percent of the shrimp we use are from the Gulf of Mexico, from this region, between Alabama and Mississippi and Louisiana and Texas.”
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