Fact check: A Chinese company did not purchase Louisiana Fish Fry

The claim: Louisiana Fish Fry, a Baton Rouge company that makes and sells cooking products, was bought by a Chinese corporation.

A posting on Facebook claimed that Louisiana Fish Fry, which makes and sells Cajun and Creole cooking products in Baton Rogue, was bought by a Chinese corporation.

Facebook user Mark Abney posted on April 29 that Louisiana Fish Fry had "sold out" to a Chinese company last year, adding: "If Americans do not wake up, we will be controlled by the Chinese government."

He later learned that news was fake. Yet the original claim still circulates on social media.

Company was indeed sold in 2018

The local company, started by the Pizzalto family in 1982, was sold in 2018 to an affiliate of Peak Rock Capital, a Texas-based private equity firm founded in 2012.

Michael Morse, president and CEO of Louisiana Fish Fry, tells Paste BN that "the claims on Facebook are false. Louisiana Fish was purchased by an Austin based private equity firm in October of 2018. All of our operations remain in Baton Rouge, LA."

Earlier, Morse had responded to another Facebook user, Cathy Groeger, who had inquired about the report of a Chinese purchase: "We are definitely US-owned and US-made. In fact, our plant and headquarters are still located right where we started, in Baton Rouge. Thanks for checking in with us to get the right information!"

Peak Rock, the private-equity firm tells Paste BN: "That claim is so ridiculous, it sounds like something a malicious competitor must have made up. We are a U.S. business, based in Austin, Texas, owned by our senior team members who are all U.S. citizens (living in Texas). We are proud Texans with ties to Louisiana.  A simple internet search would identify that for folks who wanted to know." 

We asked Abney for a comment through his Facebook page, but he did not immediately respond. However, on May 5, he had already reposted on his Facebook page Groeger's post knocking down the initial report.

Groeger, who describes herself as a retired nurse practitioner, said, in posting Morse's response: "Lesson - before posting a commit (sic) that hurts local business, let’s be responsible & check sources first."

Our fact-checking effort did turn up one spicy angle to the story: Louisiana Fish Fry's Morse says the company for several years no longer sells Chinese Red Pepper in 50-pound containers, rather it sells "Chinese-Style" Red Pepper, but assures us that "the pepper was not sourced in China." 

Our Ruling: False

There is no evidence to support the claim that Louisiana Fish Fry was purchased by a Chinese corporation.

Our fact-check sources:

• Business Report
• Louisiana Fish Fry President and CEO Michael Morse
• Peak Rock Capital

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Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.