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Post subject: Senator blows whistle on wannabe lobster
 Posted: Oct 05, 2006 - 03:57 PM
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Puffer
Joined: Dec 31, 1969
Posts: 73
Status: Offline
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Senator blows whistle on wannabe lobster
October 3, 2006
PORTLAND, Maine --You might call it an impostor lobster.
A senator from Maine says a shellfish known as "langostino lobster" is a pretender to the real thing, and she's asking the government to yank approval for restaurants to market the product on their menus. But some lobster experts say the tag fits.
Saying the very reputation of an iconic Maine industry is at stake, Sen. Olympia Snowe has written to the Food and Drug Administration and asked it to withdraw approval for restaurants to market langostino lobsters. Snowe says doing so affiliates langostinos with actual lobster to the detriment of the lobster industry in Maine.
Maine lobster sales totaled $290 million last year. But the Maine Lobster Promotion Council says langostinos cost Maine fishermen $44 million in lost sales to restaurant chains that market the shellfish on their menus. At least three restaurant chains market the alternative.
The lobster industry asserts that "langostino" is Spanish for prawn, so the term shouldn't be used to market lobsters.
Snowe, who chairs a fisheries subcommittee, said in her Sept. 25 letter to FDA Commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, "Permitting this inferior product to be improperly marketed as 'lobster' not only pollutes consumers' appetite for real lobster, but it also exposes consumers who suffer from certain allergies to potentially life-threatening allergic reactions."
The FDA considers langostino an acceptable market name for Cervimunida johni, also known as squat lobster; Munida gregaria, known as squat lobster or New Zealand langostino; and Pleuroncodes monodon, for Colorado langostino.
A University of Maine lobster expert also is not troubled by use of the langostino lobster term. Bob Bayer, executive director of UMaine's Lobster Institute, says the langostino is a clawed lobster and is caught in traps much like the larger American lobster.
Robert Steneck, professor of marine biology at UMaine, said the key to defining a lobster is the distinctive tail, and the langostino's curled tail is what earned it the common name "squat lobster."
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Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com |
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