Jeffrey A. Styron, Seafood Mislabeling, North Carolina 2023

North Carolina Seafood Scandal Exposed

A North Carolina man has pleaded guilty to selling hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of foreign crabmeat falsely labeled as 'Product of USA.'

Jeffrey A. Styron, the former treasurer of Garland F. Fulcher Seafood Company Inc., admitted to substituting foreign crabmeat for domestic blue crab and labeling it as 'backfin,' 'claw,' 'lump,' 'jumbo lump,' or 'special,' domestically-harvested blue crab meat.

According to court documents, Styron and his company used foreign crabmeat to fulfill customer orders when they couldn't process sufficient quantities of domestic blue crab. The foreign crabmeat was purchased from South America and Asia and then repacked into containers labeled 'Product of USA.'

Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark stated, 'Blue crabs are a classic American seafood product and a vital resource for coastal communities in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and other parts of the United States.'

US Attorney Robert J. Higdon Jr. added, 'Seafood mislabeling is consumer fraud that undermines efforts of hardworking, honest fishermen and the free market by devaluing the price of domestic seafood.'

As part of his guilty plea, Styron admitted that he and his company could not process sufficient quantities of domestic blue crab to meet customer demands, resulting in the sale of foreign crabmeat worth at least $250,000.

Styron is scheduled to be sentenced on December 7.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/seafood-processor-pleads-guilty-selling-foreign-crabmeat-falsely-labeled-blue-crab-us-0