The internet is full of fabulous facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving. Because of this, as we research for our daily content on food trucks, food carts and street food, we stumble upon some items of knowledge that we just did not know. We have decided when these fun facts pop up, that we would share them with our readers in our section titled “Did You Know?”

For today’s Did You Know fun food facts we will look at Shrimp.

The Facts: Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water.

• One billion pounds of shrimp are eaten every year by Americans.
• Over five billion pounds of shrimp are produced every single year.
• April 29th is Nation Shrimp Scampi Day.
• May 9th is National Shrimp Day.
• A shrimp can average about 6 inches while the longest ever found was at 16 inches.
• Some shrimp can live as long as six and a half years, while some only live about a year or so.
• There are 16 different stages of life are found in shrimp from egg to full adult.
• There are over 128 species of shrimp.
• Every shrimp is actually born a male and then become females as they mature.
• The average shrimp has 10 legs.
• The name for raw, uncooked shrimp is “green”.
• Shrimp that has been broiled or sautéed, usually in butter and garlic are called “scampi”.
• The pistol shrimp can deliver an explosive attack hotter than the surface of the sun and loud enough to rupture a human ear drum.

Shrimp Facts We Missed

Please feel free to let us know if we may have missed some in the comment section below. We always love to add to these lists. If we can verify that the facts is just that, a fact, we will give the reader credit in the article.

Reference: Wikipedia: Fun Facts about Shrimp