Vietnam Seafood

Georgia becomes 5th state with law requiring foreign shrimp labeling

01
Jun

Georgia’s governor has signed into law a bill requiring foodservice businesses to disclose whether their shrimp is imported.

The state is the fifth to adopt new labeling standards for foreign shrimp in recent years, following similar legislation in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. The goal, proponents argue, is to combat misleading advertising that has given an edge to foreign, pond-raised shrimp over domestic shrimp.

“The enactment of HB 117 is a huge victory for Georgia shrimpers, who organized an effective grassroots campaign to ensure that consumers have the ability to choose U.S. wild-caught shrimp when they dine out,” Blake Price, director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, said in a release Thursday.

Georgia’s law requires that businesses label each menu item containing imported shrimp as “foreign imported,” or disclose them as “foreign imported shrimp” on publicly visible placards. The law doesn’t apply to establishments run by state agencies.

Elected officials in South Carolina weighed similar country-of-origin labeling legislation earlier this year. South Carolina’s House of Representatives passed the bill, but the state’s Senate later passed an amended version of the bill that limited the requirements to raw shrimp.
Source: https://www.intrafish.com/