A proverbial black eye stains the restaurant industry on the Mississippi Gulf following the sentencings of multiple bad actors in a seafood misbranding scheme and a subsequent study revealing that a bulk of food providers are dishonest about what they’re serving to customers.
Just over a month ago, popular Biloxi eatery Mary Mahoney’s Old French House and its co-owner, Anthony Cvitanovich, were sentenced for importing approximately 58,750 pounds of frozen, foreign fish species that were sold as local, premium species between December 2013 and November 2019. Mary Mahoney’s supplier, Quality Poultry and Seafood Inc. — the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s largest seafood distributor — and two of its managers, were subsequently handed a scathing sentence from Lady Justice for being the ring leaders in the scheme to purposely mislead consumers.
While on the surface, the judicial process playing out appeared to be a big win for transparency, a startling investigation found that mislabeling imported seafood as locally caught product is the norm, rather than the exception in a region that boasts its food scene. SeaD Consulting, a firm specializing in genetic testing to monitor mislabeling and substitution fraud in the seafood industry, tested food from 44 coastal restaurants. In the assessment, it was discovered that only eight, or 18%, of the eateries examined were properly advertising what they were selling.
The analysis sent shockwaves among both consumers and restaurateurs in the region, damaging a general sense of goodwill among foodies. Austin Sumrall, chef and owner of White Pillars Restaurant in Biloxi, is discouraged by the potential ramifications a lack of rapport may yield, though he’s optimistic that exposing fraud will bring about change.
“I think [the study] brings to light something that needs to be dealt with,” Sumrall said. “As restaurants, we have to be honest with our customers and say what we have. I think that’s really important. I think part of the problem right now is that the Coast has lost the trust of some of the people who eat here.”
As a restaurant owner who boasts full transparency in what his establishment provides its patrons, Sumrall acknowledged that he
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