Americans have a growing appetite for cheap shrimp, but our taste for the shellfish and the market's refusal to pay higher prices can come with a cost.

Today, roughly 90% of shrimp eaten by Americans is imported, often from places with a history of human rights violations.

A new investigation is shining light on the dark side of frozen shrimp found on the shelves of major grocery stores in New Jersey and around the country.

Tonight, NJ Spotlight News is continuing our coverage on the work of the Outlaw Ocean Project.

It investigates the seafood industry and published new reporting last month focused on the company choice Canning, which has offices in Jersey City and the operation of one of its shrimp packing plants in India, which supplies frozen shrimp to places like Shoprite, Wal-Mart and Aldi, among others.

The reporting found that the company ships shrimp raised with antibiotics under an antibiotic free label to the U.S. That's a violation of federal rules.

The reporting also detailed harsh conditions for the plant's workers.

Take a look.

The toilet facilities that have no doors on them, broken showerheads that don't don't work.

Theoretically, working conditions such as these shouldn't be possible.

As an example, before all the buys our product, they have to verify that we have certain certifications in place.

And this should cover everything that you could possibly want covered as far as food safety, quality, legality and authenticity.

But it's an open secret that these.

Audits are problematic.

The problem is they only see what you allow them to see.

Well, the investigation is based largely on evidence made public by the plant's former general manager, Joshua Farinella, who kept WhatsApp messages, company documents and made audio recordings of conversations he had with choice, canning staff and management.

Farinelli quit the job and returned to the U.S. in February and immediately filed whistleblower complaint with multiple federal agencies.

I recently spoke with Farinella about his experience in India and why he's coming forward now.

Josh Farinella, welcome to the show.

So you were hired to manage this major shrimp processing plant.

What were the first signs, red flags, as it were, that said to you, there's some concern here and I need to look into this.

First, thanks for having me on.

And the first sign that that there were problems was a text message in the middle of the night from a production manager who was onsite at the factory telling me there was a migrant worker who was running through the compound trying to escape over the the compound walls because security would not allow her to leave.

And her labor contractor wanted her to pay money to leave.

So there was maybe an indication that these workers were being held against their will.

I mean, this was your first time working in India?

Yeah, at a plant like this, although you had previous experience in the seafood industry.

That was that was definitely a red flag for me.

I did have previous experience in the seafood industry in the, you know, regulatory compliance and quality assurance parts of it.

And, you know, one of one of my duties has always been, you know, assessing outside contractors and processing facilities to ensure that they're fully complying with all, you know, human rights and labor codes and and making sure that everything was was aboveboard with what was going on.

So you get to this location.

And what do you notice about the work environment, both what you were shown and and what you discovered.

So what I noticed well, what I was shown was the the dormitory facilities.

And they were incredibly cramped.

You know, there are, you know, toilet and shower facilities there for about 250 workers.

There's beds for 550 workers.

And there were actually over 650 workers living on site.

I already knew from from emails that went out from h.r.

And employee welfare that there were people sleeping on floors, that there were people sharing beds.

And you know, once i walked around on my own, i found other areas where people were being housed, where they really were sleeping on floors in dirty mattresses with no blankets, no pillows, no sheets, no no anything that what happened?

Yeah.

And when you did, you raise this concern to H.R.

and to the upper management there.

And what happened when you did?

It was everything was explained to me that it was just a misunderstanding.

It was just a one off.

There was just a delay in somebody else responding to an email.

And eventually it got to the point where these weren't misunderstandings.

It became a very clear pattern of not doing the right thing, not treating the workers the way they're supposed to be treated.

So there's human rights, alleged human rights violations.

Give us some examples of how, as filed through your whistleblower complaint, how the company tried to cover this up allegedly.

So, you know, you and I could finish our workday and we can go home or we can go anywhere we want to go.

These workers can't.

They finish their workday.

And the only place they're able to go is back to their dorm room with with no recreational area.

And they can't leave the compound to go do anything else.

There's there's a gate pass system that's used by security and by the workers contractors.

It very much restricts all movement for these migrant workers.

Beyond what the workers were facing, their living arrangements, the environment.

You also filed complaints about issues with sanitation, with cover ups.

As far as antibiotics in the shrimp.

Can you give me some examples of what you saw and what you were uncovering?

So one thing I saw with, you know, antibiotics in the shrimp.

Well, first, the FDA bans the import of of any antibiotic positive shrimp.

It's not meant for human consumption.

And I knew that well, I thought I knew that all of the raw materials, all of the shrimp that were being purchased by choice canning over there were coming from certified farms that didn't use any of these antibiotics.

But what it turned out to be is that all of this shrimp was being purchased from farms that were, you know, just local, unregistered, unregulated farms.

And, you know, these antibiotics were used regularly.

They were brought to the factory.

They were packed regularly.

They were shipped to the U.S., regularly.

Shipped to the US and to some major distributors, as it's outlined in the investigation.

Wakefern, which owns and operates Shoprite, including those in New Jersey, Walmart and Sam's Club, Aldi in the US and Germany.

So these are potentially landing in the homes, many homes of folks in the U.S. who were unknowingly then consuming this thinking that they were getting a different product.

Absolutely.

When when consumers go shopping, you shouldn't have to stop what you're doing and ask yourself if if this shrimp in your hand is safe to eat.

At what point, Josh, did you decide I need to come forward about this?

It was, you know, in the middle of January when I spoke with my wife, spoke with my family and explained everything that was happening.

And we all we all agreed that it's not anything I should be involved in.

And it's it's something that people need to know and people need to understand.

And what's actually happening over there and what's actually winding up on our dinner tables here.

Joshua Anello filed a whistleblower complaint against Choice Canning, which is a major seafood manufacturer distributor.

Josh, thank you so very much.

Thank you.

Choice Canning has denied the allegations of human rights abuses and lying about shipping shrimp raised with antibiotics.

Lawyers for the company sent two detailed responses to the Outlaw Ocean Project, denying any wrongdoing in India or the US, Noting that Choice, Canning has never had issues with the FDA related to antibiotics in its shrimp, claiming the operations follow all local labor laws.

Lawyers also questioned Farnell credibility by repeatedly referencing the whistleblower's prior felony convictions in 2010 in Pennsylvania.

The company has threatened to sue the Outlaw Ocean Project for publishing this investigation, but so far no litigation has been filed.