New Texas Shrimp Law

[Michael_in_TX]

At the conclusion of the 2025-2026 Texas Legislative Session, our Governor signed into law Senate Bill 823 which concerns how shrimp is labeled in the state. Apparently, there has been a long history of distributors and restaurants misrepresenting imported shrimp as originating in Texas waters. This law now makes that illegal, or at least charges an "administrative penalty" against the permits that the violator holds. The law specifically states:

A food service supplier, wholesaler, distributor, or wholesale distributor may not sell shrimp in this state unless the shrimp's label includes a clear and conspicuous notice stating whether the shrimp is imported.

A restaurant shall not label or represent imported shrimp as "Texas shrimp," "American shrimp," "Domestic shrimp," or "Gulf shrimp."

The full text is here: https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB823/id/3248060

The law goes into effect September 1. Gulf shrimp season opened yesterday.

[58limited]

Gulf shrimp season opened yesterday

Great! The local shrimpers will be coming to my clinic soon with fresh shrimp. I support the new law too, there is way too much labeling fraud; not just with seafood.

[Donw]

The seafood industry is one big scam when it comes to labeling many seafoods.

[Panhead John]

David, how much do they charge you per lb. for jumbo? Is it heads on or off?

[58limited]

Panhead John They charge about the same price as HEB head off shrimp but they sell them by weight with the heads on, so a little more expensive. They will dehead them when you buy if you want.

[realdocBBQ]

Now this has me thinking I want to do a shrimp boil tonight!

[Donw]

Mislabeling seafood isn’t just confined to shrimp and filleted fish but also crabmeat. Here is a post of mine on spotting imported blue crabs and crabmeat.

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum/the-pit-mastery-program/seafood-recipes/1572173-what-crab-meat-do-you-buy?p=1572530#post1572530

[Huskee]

That's cool. I personally don't discriminate since I loves me all manner of shrimps, but this is a good thing for other reasons.

[cruiseplanner1]

Steam a farm raised shrimp and do the same for a gulf shrimp. Then eat one of each. I did this for a couple of my friends over the years and asked them if they noticed. They all said why is this one so much better? I told them gulf shrimp have much more flavor than farm raised. Having said that when I cook Singapore noodles , Shrimp Linquini or other dishes I will farm raised pre cooked from Sams.

[acorgihouse]

Florida did this a while back. Seems like it was in the list of "new laws" announced first of year? Anyway, the reporting was that survey of Tampa-St. Pete restaurants was high, like >90%, misleadingly labeled as "wild caught" and "gulf" when actually farmed. Now, IIRC, the regs state shrimp must be labeled with origin, ie. domestic vs not, and preferably labeled wild caught or farmed. I don't think it has been long enough for any reporting on effect, and it hasn't bothered me as I get most of my shrimp from same source (Cox's Seafood, local family long time business that has always sold wild caught gulf shrimp, and wild caught Key West pink ones) that is even in Costco, but seems a good way to allow people to make more accurate choices about what they eat.
Although it was tilapia, not shrimp, I developed a strong aversion to seafood farming when I was in Honduras doing medical missions. One of our local translators, that we picked up in our bus on the way to clinics every morning, ran a tilapia farm on their property. We saw it when we dropped her off and picked her up. Open ponds full of fish, not protected from farming runoff in a country where waste treatment is unheard of, and trash is everywhere. Homes, and even hotels and (first hand knowledge here) hospitals have water not potable. At. All. So, I support it completely.

[Donw]

Weyerhaeuser attempted to farm raise macrobrachium rosenbergii (Giant Freshwater Prawns) in Honduras in the 70’s but water quality issues were one of the reasons they stopped. Then they turned to tilapia which didn’t mind water quality issues so much and that was more successful and spread throughout the region.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I lost a "little bit" of money gambling on a fish farm stock (AQB if you want to look it up and laugh at me), their farming was supposed to be targeted to areas where other industries had died out so they were making sustainable fish AND saving communities... they just spent too much too fast and well, you can see what the ticker did. Same thing with AppHarvest though they got delisted... I thought the farming methods looked revolutionary and gambled.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

All that to say, while I will gamble with my wallet... I prefer to know where and how my food comes from and generally won't gamble on sources if there are options (except I like fast food for some reason)

[smokenoob]

Good on Texas! Foreign seafood is a roll of the dice! I gladly pay more for local!

[jayjordan]

I learned my lesson about closely reading packages of seafood is when the "gulf shrimp" I bought were from some gulf in Asia.

[Michael_in_TX]

In all seriousness, I wonder how many times I may have been mislead by something labeled "gulf shrimp" outside of Texas.