A third of the shrimp marked as harvested from North Carolina waters likely was farm raised in a foreign country, according to a new study by the University of North Carolina.

The Virginian-Pilot reports members of the study group bought 106 shrimp from 60 vendors. DNA tests determined the species.

The study highlights a practice in which companies falsely label foreign seafood as local to sell at higher prices, double the amount in some cases.

This year North Carolina-based Phillip Carawan pled guilty in a US federal court to charges of falsely labeling $4 million (€3.6 million) worth of foreign crabmeat.

North Carolina does not have a seafood labeling law currently. In June, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards signed house bill 335 into law requiring the state's restaurants and other foodservice establishments to label shrimp and crawfish with a country-of-origin label on menus. Nationally, however, retailers must label the seafood they sell with country-of-origin identifications.