What's In Your Shrimp?

Read at your peril, if you in fact don't want to know. The new (June already) issue of Consumer Reports features a major study of shrimp, researching all the key issues: purity (bacteria, antibiotics, chemicals etc., and the news is largely not good), wild vs. farmed, fresh vs. frozen, environmental impacts, and the like. In a quick read, my takeaway was that to the extent I can afford it, I'll start spending extra to get that Whole Foods Market Responsibly Farmed label. Other labels to look for are Marine Stewardship Council, Aquaculture Stewardship Council, and Naturland. You can read the Consumer Reports article here (note you have to go page by page at the bottom - it doesn't scroll the whole way), or jump to the label summary of what you can and can't trust, at least in terms of farmed shrimp. For an in-depth treatment, you can read Consumer Reports' full report of research on which the article was based, as well as their recommendations to the FDA from their findings. As always, the dilemma of quality vs. cost, but my eyes will be open wider now.