BATON ROUGE — A genetic testing and consulting firm claims more than one in four shrimp dishes sampled at Baton Rouge restaurants were imported farm-raised shrimp, even though diners were told they were getting American wild-caught shrimp.

SeaD Consulting conducted the testing on behalf of the Southern Shrimp Alliance and said it shows the shrimp misrepresentation rate in Baton Rouge has climbed from 21% to 27% since April.

Half of the restaurants caught serving imported shrimp had a Louisiana Department of Health notice posted, yet staff still told customers the shrimp was American wild-caught, the firm said. The other half had none of the required disclosure signage.

Louisiana law allows restaurants to post a general notice reading: "Some items served at this establishment may contain imported seafood. Ask for more information."

SeaD said a past study done for the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force found that for every dollar spent on American wild-caught shrimp dishes, 40 cents was actually spent on misrepresented imported shrimp — an estimated daily loss of $225,000 for the American wild-caught shrimp industry.

The Louisiana shrimp industry is calling for unannounced genetic testing of plated shrimp, SeaD said in a news release, saying that signage inspections alone cannot confirm what is actually being served or represented to customers.

According to SeaD, the following Baton Rouge restaurants were confirmed to be serving American wild-caught shrimp:
- Acme Oyster House
- Baton Rouge Poboy
- BRQ Seafood and Barbeque
- City Cafe
- Cork's Cajun Fried Fish and Shrimp
- Crawford's Restaurant
- Doe's Eat Place
- Drusilla Seafood Restaurant
- Frank's Restaurant
- Jack's Seafood
- Mike Anderson's
- Parrain's Seafood
- SoLou
- Tony's Seafood Market and Deli

SeaD said two restaurants that it previously found mislabeling shrimp are now confirmed to be authentic. Those restaurants asked not to be named.