{"id":990,"date":"2025-10-14T01:21:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T01:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/990\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T01:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T01:21:11","slug":"is-that-shrimp-local-undercover-dna-testers-find-many-broward-restaurants-mislead-diners-by-importing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/990\/","title":{"rendered":"Is that shrimp local? Undercover DNA testers find many Broward restaurants mislead diners by importing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Picture luxuriating at a waterfront restaurant decked out in fishing nets, oars and shrimping boat pictures, where servers wear shirts featuring some variation of, \u201cWe catch it, you eat it!\u201d If you order peel-and-eat shrimp, you might reasonably expect they were fished from nearby waters, right?<\/p>\n

Wrong, argues commercial fisheries scientist Dave Williams, who found the opposite at most of the 44 Broward County restaurants he and and other undercover testers dined at this summer. The testers, from Williams\u2019 Texas-based company SeaD Consulting, visited randomly selected seafood spots and used rapid genetic tests to prove whether the shrimp advertised as local actually came from local waters.<\/p>\n

For a region known for megayachts and fresh catches, Williams said the study \u201cshocked\u201d him: Results released<\/a> by the company on Oct. 1 revealed that 39 out of 44 tested restaurants served farm-raised, imported shrimp \u2014 and 26 of them passed that shrimp off as locally caught, duping diners into paying more for pricier seafood.<\/p>\n

Only five restaurants, the company said, served authentic domestic or wild-caught shrimp:<\/p>\n

Evelyn\u2019s at the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences Fort Lauderdale, 525 N. Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd.
\nGrumpy Gary\u2019s, 318 N. Federal Highway, Dania Beach
\nLuc\u2019s Seafood and Grill, 5511 S. University Drive, Davie
\nTruluck\u2019s, 701 N. Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd., Suite CU-1, Fort Lauderdale
\nWorld Famous Parrot Lounge, 911 Sunrise Lane, Fort Lauderdale<\/p>\n

\"Key<\/p>\n

Amy Beth Bennett \/ South Florida Sun Sentinel<\/p>\n

ONE OF THE RESTAURANTS DOING IT RIGHT: Key West pink shrimp alfredo at the World Famous Parrot Lounge in Fort Lauderdale, one of five Broward County restaurants found to serve authentic domestic or wild-caught shrimp. (Amy Beth Bennett\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Williams said he\u2019s using the genetic technology to expose more restaurants and stop a \u201cdesperate\u201d problem: More local eateries are misrepresenting inferior shrimp fished thousands of miles away as Gulf shrimp, helping an import industry known for labor abuses<\/a> while harming Florida\u2019s multigenerational shrimping communities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re definitely defrauding consumers,\u201d Williams told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. \u201cRestaurants are substituting local shrimp for far-less expensive imported shrimp in order to increase their margins, and this substitution is destroying our Gulf shrimping industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

But SeaD Consulting, Williams is quick to add, isn\u2019t \u201ca gotcha organization.\u201d He declined to name any restaurants caught serving imported shrimp because it \u201cmight not necessarily be their fault,\u201d or they were \u201cmisinformed and got the wrong seafood by mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

SeaD Consulting created its peer-reviewed<\/a>, patent-pending<\/a> genetics test in collaboration with Prashant Singh, a food-safety microbiologist at Florida State University. Singh said their RIGHTTest is portable and works by using a centrifuge and heating device to identify shrimp DNA against 400 tissue samples preserved at FSU\u2019s lab, adding that it can also produce rapid results in the field in as little as two hours.<\/p>\n

\"After<\/p>\n

SeaD Consulting \/ Courtesy<\/p>\n

After buying shrimp from restaurants, undercover testers from SeaD Consulting bag, label and freeze the samples before sending them to a Florida State University laboratory for genetic testing. (SeaD Consulting\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n

\u201cI would pull out all the shrimp tissue samples from my bank whenever I\u2019m testing,\u201d Singh explains. \u201cWhen those samples are matching [Food and Drug Administration]-level results, it gives me a high degree of confidence in my work.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Florida isn\u2019t the first market SeaD Consulting has scrutinized since ramping up testing efforts in late 2024. Williams\u2019 company also visited Savannah, Georgia<\/a>, and Wilmington, North Carolina<\/a>, which each tallied 77% inauthenticity.\u00a0New Orleans<\/a> performed best with just 13% of restaurants mislabeling their shrimp, while the Tampa\/St. Petersburg<\/a> area fared the worst: Only two out of 44 restaurants tested served real Gulf shrimp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have issues against imported shrimp, but I do have a problem with mislabeling,\u201d Singh adds. \u201cEvery time they sell imported products as domestic, they are stealing off the plates of domestic shrimpers, who get nothing. That doesn\u2019t sound fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Commercial<\/p>\n

SeaD Consulting \/ Courtesy<\/p>\n

Commercial fisheries scientist Dave Williams and a team of undercover testers visited 44 Broward County restaurants earlier this summer to determine whether eateries misrepresented their seafood offerings. (SeaD Consulting\/Courtesy)
\n\u2018It\u2019s just offensive\u2019<\/p>\n

Mislabeling seafood products in Florida is illegal<\/a>, and anyone convicted of seafood fraud can be sentenced to up to a second-degree misdemeanor \u2014 $500 or up to 60 days in jail \u2014 under Florida law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In September 2024, the Federal Trade Commission<\/a> published guidance aimed at restaurants that \u201cbend the rules by using pictures, symbols, or other things to make people believe something about what they are selling without actually saying the words. That\u2019s an implied claim. If it\u2019s not true, it\u2019s just as illegal as an outright lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last October, Alvaro Bedoya, then an FTC commissioner, sent letters to the nation\u2019s 10 highest-grossing seafood restaurants, including Red Lobster and Long John Silver\u2019s, warning that false advertising about locally caught fare could be investigated, he told Reuters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a new reminder to companies that it is all of the ways you\u2019re communicating to a consumer, the net impression of that communication needs to be accurate,\u201d Bedoya said in the article.<\/p>\n

Even so, Florida laws aren\u2019t tough enough to crack down on mislabeled seafood \u2014 and the imports aren\u2019t stopping, said Debbie Long, a spokesperson for New Port Richey-based Southern Shrimping Alliance, which is funding SeaD Consulting\u2019s field tests.<\/p>\n

Beyond exposing consumer fraud, Long said this testing sheds light on the dying livelihood of catching shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico, as Gulf shrimpers reel from worker shortages, expensive diesel fuel and a flood of cheaply imported shrimp from India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Ecuador.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt allows unfair competition to outcompete U.S. shrimpers,\u201d Long said. \u201cIt\u2019s just offensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commercial landings data<\/a> from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission illustrates the punishing economics. In 2015, 7.4 million pounds of pink shrimp were harvested statewide, valued at $17.2 million. That\u2019s down compared with 4.4 million pounds harvested in 2024 at a value of $8.1 million.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Amy Beth Bennett \/ South Florida Sun Sentinel<\/p>\n

The World Famous Parrot Lounge in Fort Lauderdale has been open since 1970 and serving Key West pink shrimp since 2017. Testing by SeaD Consulting found it was one of five Broward County restaurants serving authentic domestic or wild-caught shrimp. (Amy Beth Bennett\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
\nParrot Lounge: \u2018Eat some pink shrimp\u2019<\/p>\n

One of the Fort Lauderdale restaurants serving local shrimp proven by the testing as authentic, the World Famous Parrot Lounge is a breezy seaside landmark near Sunrise Boulevard and State Road A1A that has pumped out burgers, Philly cheesesteaks and seafood since 1970<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Co-owner Joe O\u2019Donnell, who\u2019s worked at the Parrot since 1978 and classifies it as a \u201cPhilly bar,\u201d said the bestsellers are cheesesteaks \u2014 but not far behind are the Key West pink shrimp, a menu staple since 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes we got to remind the Philly visitors to eat some pink shrimp,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said with a laugh. \u201cLike, c\u2019mon, you can get a cheesesteak anytime, would you please eat something local to the economy?\u201d<\/p>\n

The restaurant-bar offers pink shrimp in many configurations: Beer-battered, coconut-breaded or grilled for tacos, quesadillas and shrimp scampi. While it costs him $3 more per pound compared with \u201cshrimp shipped in from overseas,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said it\u2019s far more delicious.<\/p>\n

\"Grilled<\/p>\n

Amy Beth Bennett \/ South Florida Sun Sentinel<\/p>\n

Grilled pink shrimp tacos at the World Famous Parrot Lounge in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. Testing by SeaD Consulting found it was one of five Broward County restaurants serving authentic domestic or wild-caught shrimp. (Amy Beth Bennett\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe imported stuff hurts the industry all through the Gulf, so I\u2019m glad we can at least contribute something,\u201d said O\u2019Donnell, adding that the Parrot also does monthly beach cleanups. \u201cMost times, you taste the difference. It\u2019s nice to have seafood you know came just off the boats.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the reason tourists visit South Florida in the first place, argues Williams, the commercial fisheries scientist.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason people come down to Florida is because they want good-quality, fresh seafood,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can get frozen shrimp from India at the grocery store. Here we have a protein source that\u2019s wild and fully sustainable, but we\u2019re just not harvesting it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Picture luxuriating at a waterfront restaurant decked out in fishing nets, oars and shrimping boat pictures, where servers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1593,506,104,1594,28,688,249,251,250,114,687,109,685,106],"class_list":["post-990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-bars","tag-broward-county","tag-entertainment","tag-explore-florida","tag-florida","tag-food-and-drink","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-restaurants","tag-social","tag-the-eat-beat","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990","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=990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}