Distributor With Ties to Louisiana Pleads Guilty to Mislabeling Imported Seafood as Local

A well-known Mississippi Gulf Coast seafood wholesaler with deep ties to Louisiana restaurants has pleaded guilty to a decades-long scheme of mislabeling imported seafood as locally sourced premium varieties. Quality Poultry and Seafood Inc. (QPS), the largest seafood distributor on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and two of its managers admitted to the fraudulent activity in a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.

For nearly 20 years, QPS and its managers, Todd A. Rosetti and James W. Gunkel, participated in a scheme to deceive customers, including some Louisiana restaurants, by substituting lower-quality frozen seafood imported from overseas for high-grade local species. According to WBRZ, the mislabeled seafood was sold as a premium local catch to restaurants and through the company’s retail market and café. The company, which boasts a legacy stretching back to 1951, admitted that this fraud persisted from as early as 2002 until November 2019.

As part of the plea deal, Quality Poultry and Seafood agreed to pay $1 million in forfeitures and a $150,000 criminal fine. The Department of Justice emphasized the far-reaching impact of this scheme, noting that it not only misled consumers but also harmed local fishermen and wholesalers who rely on selling genuinely locally sourced seafood.

“Mislabeling seafood harms local wholesalers and fishermen who compete to sell locally sourced, premium fish in a market unfairly flooded with less expensive fish, frozen and imported from overseas," stated Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

This revelation comes at a time when Louisiana has taken steps to protect its culinary heritage and ensure transparency in the seafood industry. New state laws, passed earlier this year, prohibit misleading descriptions of seafood as “Louisiana-style” or “New Orleans-style” unless all processing is completed locally or within the Gulf region.

The Rosetti family, who have operated Quality Poultry and Seafood for four generations, built their reputation on providing high-quality seafood products to the Gulf Coast community. Despite this recent scandal, the company’s history is deeply rooted in the region, having grown from a small seafood market in Biloxi, Mississippi, to the largest seafood wholesaler on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The company, known for its wide range of seafood products and its award-winning café, has long been a staple in both the local and regional seafood markets.

See the full story here via WBRZ.