40% of 'Maryland" Crabcakes really from Indo-Pacific region

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According to Babs Mikulski...

Stronger traceability requirements will better protect hard-working, law-abiding Maryland and Virginia watermen

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and U.S. Representative Rob Wittman (R-Va.) today urged President Obama to protect Maryland and Virginia’s seafood industry by strengthening efforts to prevent seafood fraud. The fraudulent labeling of Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean blue crab meat has a detrimental impact on an industry that plays an important role in the Maryland and Virginia economies, generating nearly $30 million annually in ex-vessel revenue for commercial watermen in Virginia and over $58 million annually in Maryland. However, a recent investigation by Oceana found that nearly 40 percent of crab cakes advertised in Maryland and Washington restaurants as coming from the Chesapeake Bay were, in fact, imported – primarily from the Indo-Pacific region.

In order to combat this and other types of fraud, in June 2014 the White House established a Presidential Task Force, co-chaired by the Departments of State and Commerce, to develop recommendations to combat illegal fishing and seafood labeling fraud.

“While we welcome the efforts of the Task Force, we believe that two important changes to its draft recommendations are needed in order to fully and comprehensively prevent the fraudulent activities that are negatively impacting Virginia and Maryland watermen,” the Members wrote today in a letter to President Obama.

The Task Force released 15 draft recommendations in March, including strengthening enforcement and enhancing enforcement tools, creating and expanding partnerships with non-federal entities, and increasing information available on seafood products through additional traceability requirements. The Task Force followed up by releasing a draft list of at-risk species in July that will inform the first phase of the seafood traceability program.

In today’s letter, the Members pointed out that, under the Task Force’s draft recommendations, seafood would not be tracked beyond the first domestic point of sale. The members instead urged President Obama and the Task Force to adopt “bait to plate” tracking, requiring tracking and traceability all the way from its source to the consumer. Bait to plate tracking would prevent dishonest seafood processors in the U.S. from importing less-expensive foreign crab meat and repackaging it for sale to consumers as a “product of the United States.”

The Members also noted that “by listing only blue crab as an ‘at risk’ species, the proposal put forth by the Task Force fails to require documentation for the many species of crab that are known to be fraudulently substituted for blue crab and then sold in the U.S. Such a system places the burden of labeling solely on honest watermen who follow the rules, rather than on those who produce the crab products that are fraudulently substituted for blue crab. We believe a comprehensive approach is needed to ensure that all seafood sold in the U.S. is safe, legally caught, and honestly labeled. We encourage the Task Force to include these important changes. Thank you again for your attention to this important issue.”

The full text of the letter appears below.

September 14, 2015

Dear President Obama,

We agree with your administration that it is in the national interest of the United States to combat seafood fraud, and we thank you for your continued efforts to fight illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and seafood fraud.

The fraudulent labeling of Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean blue crab meat has had a detrimental impact on an industry that plays an important role in Virginia and Maryland’s economies. Virginia’s blue crab fishery generates nearly $30 million annually in ex-vessel revenue for commercial watermen, while Maryland generates over $58 million annually. However, a recent investigation in Maryland and Washington D.C. found that 38 percent of crab cakes sold as Chesapeake blue crab were mislabeled. Tests revealed at least eight species other than blue crab present in the samples, with many coming instead from the Indo-Pacific and Mexican Pacific regions. This deceptive labeling misleads consumers and threatens the livelihood of the watermen in our states. We have a duty to protect the efforts of our honest fishermen and the economic gains from this resource.

We applaud you for launching the Presidential Task Force to Combat Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing and Seafood Fraud in order to strengthen our efforts to prevent fraudulent seafood practices. While we welcome the efforts of the Task Force, we believe that two important changes to its draft recommendations are needed in order to fully and comprehensively prevent the fraudulent activities that are negatively impacting Virginia and Maryland watermen.

Our first concern is that the Task Force does not require tracking and traceability information to accompany seafood throughout the supply chain and beyond the first entry into U.S. commerce. In a letter to the Task Force on July 21, 2014, we raised the concern that some processors are legally importing foreign crab meat, repackaging it at a domestic processing facility, and then labeling it as a product of the United States. The result is that domestically harvested crabmeat is competing against less expensive foreign crabmeat fraudulently labeled as a “product of the United States.” In order to address the issue of mislabeled crab meat, the final regulation should not end traceability and tracking at the first point of sale, but must follow seafood along the entire supply chain – from bait to plate.

Secondly, by listing only blue crab as an “at risk” species, the proposal put forth by the Task Force fails to require documentation for the many species of crab that are known to be fraudulently substituted for blue crab and then sold in the U.S. Such a system places the burden of labeling solely on honest watermen who follow the rules, rather than on those who produce the crab products that are fraudulently substituted for blue crab.

We believe a comprehensive approach is needed to ensure that all seafood sold in the U.S. is safe, legally caught, and honestly labeled. We encourage the Task Force to include these important changes. Thank you again for your attention to this important issue.

Sincerely,
 

LightRoasted

If I may ...
If I may ...

I've always thought the number to be much higher. Closer to 85-90%. It's the local processing costs, to pick and pack the crab meat, that would make true Maryland crabs cake too expensive. So, restaurants buy the cheaper imported crab meats. Can you really tell a crab cake made with Maryland crab from any other with all the spices used anyway?
 

officeguy

Well-Known Member
40% of restaurant and store-bought 'Maryland Crab Cake' is asian, the rest from South Carolina (ACE basin) and Louisiana.
 

PrchJrkr

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How many crabs does it take to make 1 crab cake?

It really depends on the grade of crabs we're talking about. Gilligan has a connection.

If you make them like Leonardtown Grille's, one crab per one dozen cakes...
 

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tipsymcgee

Active Member
There are zero local picking houses to supply restaurants in SOMD. Not sure how many if any are left on the Eastern Shore. A few years back the picking houses complained of a change in visa laws that would kill their ability to get temporary worker visas to pick crabs. I don't know what came of that law, if it passed or not. Since the whole news and washington post article a couple months ago, the crab meat out of Reedville, VA is now marked "Product of USA" instead of just having a date on it. That doesn't mean it's local, but it's a lot more local than canned Asian meat. The meat out of Reedville has been very good all summer, lots of sweet flavor and bits of fat and mustard, and you can tell it's pretty close or mostly Chesapeake Bay meat. Over the winter months you can tell the difference. Open a can of Asian and a pound of local crab meat, you'll see and taste the difference. I always thought cakes should be lightly seasoned. Dumping a bunch of Old Bay in crab cakes is kinda missing the point if u ask me. I talked to a salesman from United Shellfish this spring and asked about crab meat, and he said, "Pfff, i don't even wanna talk about it, they're just opening cans of meat and dumping them into the plastic containers." Needless to say I kept getting it from Reedville!
 

Agee

Well-Known Member
This has been a growing trend for a few years, the bigger seafood retailers (Phillips) has been selling this stuff for years. It's not a "bad" product just doesn't stand-up to local buddy hard crabs and yes you can tell the difference.

Probably not a cause necessary for our elected officials to stand behind?
 

Gilligan

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How many crabs does it take to make 1 crab cake?

The way I make mine...about 1.5 crabs per crab cake, depending on how big the crabs are. Sometimes more. I shoot for 4 dozen crab cakes from a bushel of crabs.
 
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GURPS

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There are zero local picking houses to supply restaurants in SOMD. Not sure how many if any are left on the Eastern Shore. A few years back the picking houses complained of a change in visa laws that would kill their ability to get temporary worker visas to pick crabs.



If I understand correctly, SOMD picking houses got priced out of the market, due to labor costs ..... cheap Asian Meat has taken over

all I see this protection measure doing is making restaurants change their menus [there should be truth in the listing]
I do not see a sudden rise in consumption of CB Crab Meat however ... if most of the people eating crab cakes cannot tell the difference, they are not going to suddenly pay the increased costs
 

Gilligan

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I always thought cakes should be lightly seasoned. Dumping a bunch of Old Bay in crab cakes is kinda missing the point if u ask me.

That! ^ The only "seasoning" that goes in to mine is some Dijon mustard and a little hot sauce that gets mixed in with the egg, mayo and cracker flour.
 
H

Hodr

Guest
Learn something new every day. I was certain that the crab for crab cakes was mechanically separated.
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
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My understanding of a "Maryland" crabcake is that it's an incorrect recipe and method of preparation. The "Maryland" crabcakes I've had in places outside of, you know, Maryland are ####ty little cakes overloaded with saltine crackers and minced green pepper, with maybe a few strands of shredded crabmeat, which is compressed into a hockey puck and deep fried to within an inch of its life.
 

Gilligan

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My understanding of a "Maryland" crabcake is that it's an incorrect recipe and method of preparation. The "Maryland" crabcakes I've had in places outside of, you know, Maryland are ####ty little cakes overloaded with saltine crackers and minced green pepper, with maybe a few strands of shredded crabmeat, which is compressed into a hockey puck and deep fried to within an inch of its life.

Sounds typical...sadly enough. Mine cannot be deep fried, only pan fried. They would come completely apart in a deep fryer and you'd have to fish all the lumps of meat out.

Sometimes I include bits of chopped celery and sometimes some hot pepper bits, but usually don't include either one.
 

vraiblonde

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Sounds typical...sadly enough. Mine cannot be deep fried, only pan fried. They would come completely apart in a deep fryer and you'd have to fish all the lumps of meat out.

Mine too.

In other states they have "Maryland" fried chicken, which is crazy delicious but not something Maryland is famous for; and they have "Maryland" crabcakes, which are a heinous (and should be illegal) bastardization of what Maryland IS famous for.

What a country.
 

Pete

Repete
When I go to a crab shack I typically skip the crabs and crab cakes and go right to the cheese steak sandwich.
 
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