A bill that would require Louisiana restaurants to declare if they serve imported shrimp and crawfish is on its way to Governor Jon Bel Edwards' desk.
House Bill 335 passed unanimously in the state Senate on Tuesday, 28 May. Three weeks prior, the bill sponsored by state Rep. Jerry Gisclair (D-Larose) passed unanimously in the House.
Shauna Sanford, the governor's communications director, told SeafoodSource in an email that Edwards plans to sign the bill.
"Louisiana is blessed to have an abundance of seafood, and this law will require restaurants to inform their patrons of the source of the shrimp and crawfish on the menu, whether it is from the United States or imported," she said. "Our citizens and tourists will be able to know if they are consuming some of the wonderful produce from our wetlands. We believe this will help show the benefits of our Louisiana’s local fisheries and how they impact the communities that count on them."
According to the legislation, restaurants must note in their menus if the shrimp or crawfish used has been imported. The notification can either be printed on the menu or attached by a paperclip. Those establishments not using menus must conspicuously place a disclosure near their entrances. The Louisiana Department of Health will be in charge of monitoring and enforcement.
The bill had the support of local shrimpers and fishermen as well as the American Shrimp Processors Association (ASPA) and the Southern Shrimp Alliance. While imported shrimp may be cheaper, advocates for the bill say foreign shrimp can contain antibiotics that aren’t approved in the United States.
With federal officials only able to inspect only 0.1 percent of the all imported shipments annually, supporters say consumers should know the food’s original location.
“Antimicrobial resistance is a growing public health problem impacted by persistent exposure to these drugs,” ASPA Executive Director David Veal said in a statement.
However, that wasn’t the only reason why some supported the bill. Tenney Flynn, a New Orleans chef who owns GW Fins, said that about two-thirds of the patrons to his French Quarter restaurant are visitors from out-of-state.
While he makes it a point to serve local products, he knows not all of his competitors do.
“When they come to New Orleans, everybody wants to eat and drink and have a good time,” Flynn told the Senate Health and Welfare Committee in a hearing last week. “People assume that the seafood that they’re eating is local, and that’s not always the case.”
The Louisiana Restaurant Association initially voiced opposition to the bill. However, at the Senate committee meeting, the group’s lobbyist, Eldon Rogillio, said he met with Gisclair to work out their main issues, such as how restaurants should make the disclosures to consumers.
It’s probably not a perfect piece of legislation, Rogillio told lawmakers, but having “talked, fought, talked, fought, shook hands [and] hugged each other five or six times through this process,” it’s a product of compromise that meets everyone’s satisfaction.
“The LRA’s goal has been from the start to figure out something amicable to work through,” he said.
