{"id":211601,"date":"2026-03-30T12:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/211601\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T12:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:53:11","slug":"florida-restaurants-under-fire-for-selling-imported-shrimp-as-local-catch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/211601\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida restaurants under fire for selling imported shrimp as local catch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A new study found that mislabeled shrimp is costing the U.S. seafood industry millions of dollars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Researchers report that some restaurants are misrepresenting imported, farm-raised shrimp as local, wild-caught seafood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The practice negatively impacts local fishermen and causes customers to pay higher prices for products they are not actually receiving.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to the study, Florida is among the states with the highest levels of shrimp mislabeling in the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mislabeled seafood often originates from international commercial operations rather than local waters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Domestic seafood advocates note that the practice allows restaurants to capitalize on the high demand for local products while using cheaper alternatives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Experts say what diners believe they are eating often does not match what is actually served on their plates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Christine Gala serves as a board member for the Southern Shrimp Alliance, an organization that represents the interests of the domestic shrimp industry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Gala noted that consumers are frequently misled regarding the origin of their meal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWhen in fact, they\u2019re probably eating imported shrimp from a shrimp farm in Ecuador,\u201d Gala said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The financial impact on the domestic industry is significant as local producers struggle to compete with misrepresented goods.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Click here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Click here&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:click here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;click here&quot;}\" class=\"link \">click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"ct:story;elm:img;itc:0;\" class=\"stretched-box\" href=\"https:\/\/wftvapps.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"537\" height=\"108\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/beda08358d6db9816e7b0d066edd22cf.jpeg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new study found that mislabeled shrimp is costing the U.S. seafood industry millions of dollars. Researchers report&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[96854,28,30,29,96853,687,85876,96852,85877],"class_list":["post-211601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-christine-gala","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-local-products","tag-restaurants","tag-seafood-industry","tag-shrimp-farm","tag-shrimp-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}