September 17, 2019 — A new seafood bill is causing local restaurants to tell customers just how local their seafood is.
Signed by Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards on June 19, House Bill 335 requires restaurants that sell imported crawfish and shrimp to disclose where the seafood is coming from. According to the Louisiana Restaurant Association, businesses will have to disclose this information either on the restaurant’s menu or main entrance. Failure to comply with the new bill will cause any restaurant to receive a violation of the state’s sanitary code.
Having taken effect on Sept. 1, many business owners will not have to comply with this bill due to only selling domestic seafood. One such restaurant is Drago’s Seafood Restaurant.
According to Drago’s owner Tommy Cvitanovich, all of the shrimp and crawfish served there is local. However, Cvitanovich admitted that knowing exactly how local the seafood is can be a struggle and leads to many questions.