The Mississippi Commission on Marine Resources considered a resolution this week for Country of Origin Labeling for all seafood products served in restaurants.
Currently, restaurants must divulge where shrimp came from only if a customer asks. “We want it to where they have to actually put it on the menu the country of origin,” said Steve Bosarge of Pascagoula, a commission member and shrimper. Bosarge says that with domestic vs. foreign shrimp, “there is a vast difference in taste, there is a vast difference in texture, and there is a vast difference in quality.”
The Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association on the other hand, opposes the labeling. Executive director Mike Cashion says that the domestic supply of shrimp isn’t adequate to meet public demand. “You may get domestic shrimp on Monday and Ecuadorian shrimp on Friday,” he says. “You would have to reprint your menu every time you get a shrimp order in.”
Cashion says restaurants can comply with the catfish labeling by simply posting a sign, because most of the catfish served in Mississippi is domestically produced.
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