A food vendor at the Louisiana Crawfish Festival in St. Bernard Parish has served Chinese-sourced crustaceans and failed to disclose it as required under state law, organizers have confirmed.
WVUE-TV Fox 8 reports organizers were made aware of the infraction when an attendee sent them pictures of a vendor using packages of foreign crawfish. Louisiana law requires fair food vendors, restaurants, seafood markets, grocers and other retailers to display signs that detail the origin of any foreign crawfish they sell.
Crawfish Festival secretary Cisco Gonzales Jr. confirmed to Fox 8 that the visitor told organizers the vendor had no such signage.
“We know how important supporting local seafood is in St. Bernard Parish,” Gonzales said. “You know, I come from a family of fishermen. A lot of my uncles and cousins are still down there doing that, and we want to respect that and we wanna make sure that our vendors are respectful of that, too.”
The crawfish for all festival vendors are being checked, and they are being asked to display signage if they’re serving foreign catch, Gonzales said.
The Louisiana Crawfish, held annually for 50 years in Chalmette, started Wednesday and ends Saturday.
The origin of seafood sold and served in Louisiana is under heightened scrutiny after Louisiana strengthened its source disclosure law, effective January 1. Optional fines for offenses start at $15,000 for a first offense to $50,000 for third and subsequent offenses.
Spot genetic testing from the Texas-based firm SeaD Consulting has revealed most merchants, eateries and vendors sampled are purveying local catch, but some are either knowingly selling foreign seafood or aren’t aware of the labeling law.
SeaD found four Lafayette restaurants out of 24 sampled were selling foreign shrimp passed off as local in a study it conducted last month. It conducted similar testing in New Orleans in January, when three of 24 restaurants sold undisclosed imported shrimp.
In November, a joint investigation from Fox 8 and the Illuminator used SeaD testing and found that the large majority of vendors at a local festival and seafood market were providing catch from the Gulf of Mexico and area waters.
SeaD Consulting does not disclose the names of businesses it discovers selling undisclosed foreign seafood, preferring instead to raise awareness of the state labeling law.
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