Animal welfare organization Wakker Dier sounded the alarm about the practice back in 2021. Behind the eye of a shrimp, which is more or less on a stalk, lies a gland that produces hormones. These influence the moment when a shrimp can lay eggs. Without an eye, and therefore without those hormones, the female shrimp is ready earlier which saves costs.
The cutting off of the eyes takes place, in particular, with suppliers from Vietnam, Ecuador, Honduras, Indonesia and Venezuela.
“Research shows that shrimp flinch during treatment and are upset afterwards. Where they normally sit quietly on the bottom, after cutting they swim around disoriented and frequently bump into the basin wall,” The organization hopes other supers will follow suit.

“Since 2023, we are the first supermarket to switch to a transparent and more sustainable tropical shrimp chain,” @albertheijn reports. The store also plans to offer only shrimp that have been electrically stunned before being killed.