A flag advertises the 2024 Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival in Morgan City, La. (Photo courtesy of Erin Williams/Sea D Consulting)
A state lawmaker has issued a scathing rebuke of what she characterized as an embarrassing and “misleading” response from the Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival after the Illuminator reported that multiple vendors sold imported shrimp at this year’s event.
Meanwhile, the leader of a state seafood promotion board said legislation could be in the works to eliminate imported seafood at festivals around Louisiana.
State Rep. Jessica Domangue, R-Houma, wrote an open letter to festival organizers that she posted Thursday on Facebook.
“Growing up in St. Mary Parish in a family of generations of commercial shrimpers, I was appalled to learn of the widespread selling of imported shrimp at the Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival,” Domangue wrote. “I found the Festival’s official response in an October 1 press release to be an embarrassment.”
Domangue’s legislative district covers the southern portion of Terrebonne Parish, just adjacent to Morgan City in St. Mary Parish where the festival has been held since 1936.
The Illuminator reported Monday that genetic testing of seafood served at the festival last month found four out of five vendors evaluated served foreign shrimp passed off as local. Two of the four vendors sampled were local restaurants.
The testing was performed at the five-day festival over the Labor Day weekend by Sea D Consulting, a food safety technology company that recently developed a rapid seafood species identification test in collaboration with Florida State University microbiologist Prashant Singh.
Organizers of the Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival did not respond to the Illuminator’s requests for comment for its report. However, on Tuesday, the festival board posted an official statement on Facebook that prompted Domangue’s letter.
Testing finds mostly foreign shrimp at Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival
The festival organizers said in the post they are aware of a new Louisiana law that will go into effect in January requiring strict prohibitions against falsely presenting imported shrimp as if it is domestic. They wrote that they will require vendors to comply with the law next year once it takes effect.
Organizers did not acknowledge the test results detailed in the Illuminator’s report,
Domangue called the festival’s response “misleading” because the new law, which she assisted in writing, only strengthens existing law that already requires “any food service establishment” to clearly display on “all menus” if they serve imported shrimp or crawfish.
The lawmaker speculated over the possibility the festival has allowed its restaurant vendors to “openly violate Louisiana law” for years.
Domangue pointed out that the festival organizers don’t seem to understand the main issue, which she said is more about preserving Louisiana’s culture and reputation than it is about a labeling law.
“Louisiana has a proud history of harvest festivals across the state, and the negative publicity surrounding this incident will be damaging to our state’s tourist economy,” she wrote. “For example, consider the absurdity if vendors openly used imported strawberries at the Strawberry Festival to make a ‘quick extra buck’ and undermine the local farmers the festival is supposed to celebrate. Please take a step back and realize this is precisely how the general public views this incident.”
Samantha Carroll, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board, said her office plans to ask state lawmakers to consider new legislation directly addressing festivals in an effort to prevent similar situations.
In previous years, the agency worked with organizers across the state to promote domestic seafood at festivals. Funding that paid for most of that work came from the Deepwater Horizon and BP oil spill disaster settlement, which has since dried up, Carroll said.
She said the board is currently working with the state agriculture department to prepare for a large expansion of seafood testing next year, though all of it is aimed at wholesale processor facilities rather than restaurants and festivals.
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