Baby Ledger AI"Shellfish" is really two families of ingredients - crustaceans like shrimp, crab, and lobster, and mollusks like oyster, clam, squid, and abalone - and Chinese, Korean, and Japanese labels each carve those families up differently. This page collects the shellfish terms actually printed on packaging in all three languages, including the dried-seafood, paste, and extract forms that do the hiding.
It is a single-allergen companion to our three label guides: the foreign food labels hub, the Japanese labels guide, and the Chinese and Korean labels guide.
The words for shellfish, language by language
| Language | Core words (native script) | Read as | Derivatives and packaging aliases |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese (simplified / traditional) | 虾 / trad. 蝦 (shrimp); 蟹 / 螃蟹 (crab) | xiā; xiè / pángxiè | 龙虾 / trad. 龍蝦 (lobster), 虾米 (dried shrimp), 虾皮 (dried baby shrimp), 虾酱 / trad. 蝦醬 (shrimp paste), 蟹黄 / trad. 蟹黃 (crab roe), 甲壳类 / trad. 甲殼類 (crustaceans), 贝类 / trad. 貝類 (mollusks), 牡蛎 / trad. 牡蠣 or 蚝 / trad. 蠔 (oyster), 蚝油 / trad. 蠔油 (oyster sauce), 扇贝 / trad. 扇貝 (scallop), 蛤蜊 (clam), 鲍鱼 / trad. 鮑魚 (abalone), 鱿鱼 / trad. 魷魚 (squid) |
| Korean | 새우 (shrimp); 게 (crab) | saeu; ge | 새우젓 (salted fermented shrimp), 꽃게 (blue crab), 대게 (snow crab), 바닷가재 / 랍스터 (lobster), 갑각류 (crustaceans), 조개류 (the shellfish category: 굴 oyster, 전복 abalone, 홍합 mussel), 굴소스 (oyster sauce), 가리비 (scallop), 조개 (clam), 오징어 (squid) |
| Japanese | えび / エビ / 海老 (shrimp / prawn); かに / カニ / 蟹 (crab) | ebi; kani | 甲殻類 (crustaceans), 桜えび (sakura shrimp), えびエキス (shrimp extract), かにエキス (crab extract), 貝類 (mollusks), 牡蠣 / かき (oyster), あさり (clam), ほたて (scallop), あわび (abalone), いか (squid), オイスターソース (oyster sauce), 魚介エキス (seafood extract) |
A few notes that matter at the shelf:
- Know which family your child's allergen belongs to. The US "Big 9" is milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts, wheat, soy, fish, crustacean shellfish, and sesame. Note the wording: crustacean shellfish. Mollusks like squid, oyster, and clam are not US major allergens, so even domestic labels will not necessarily call them out.
- Shrimp hides in seasonings. 虾米 and 虾皮 (dried shrimp) season a huge range of Chinese products, 새우젓 (salted fermented shrimp) is a standard ingredient in Korean kimchi and side dishes, and 桜えび (sakura shrimp) and えびエキス (shrimp extract) appear on Japanese snack and noodle labels.
- Oyster sauce is made with oyster extract. It appears as 蚝油 (trad. 蠔油) on Chinese labels, 굴소스 on Korean ones, and オイスターソース on Japanese ones.
- Extract words are easy to skim past on Japanese labels. えびエキス (shrimp extract), かにエキス (crab extract), and the broader 魚介エキス (seafood extract) all pack shellfish-derived ingredients into two or three characters plus エキス.
Where to look on the package
First, find the ingredient list. On mainland Chinese labels the header is 配料 or 配料表 (pèiliào / pèiliàobiǎo). Products from Taiwan or Hong Kong usually print traditional characters and often head the list with 成分 or 成份 (chéngfèn) instead. On Korean labels the header is 원재료명 (wonjaeryomyeong, "raw material names"), with the allergen box nearby.
Japanese packaged foods usually carry the allergen information in one of two places, and often both:
- Inside the ingredient list (原材料名, "genzairyō-mei"). Allergens appear as part of the ingredients, sometimes with the allergen name in parentheses right after an ingredient, for example "マヨネーズ（卵を含む）" meaning "mayonnaise (contains egg)."
- In a separate allergen summary line, often introduced by a phrase like "アレルギー物質" (allergy substances) or "特定原材料" (specified raw materials). This is the closest thing to the US "Contains:" line.
Look for the heading 原材料名 to find the ingredient list, and scan both the list itself and any nearby summary line.
Is shellfish a mandatory callout in each market?
- Japan: shrimp/prawn (えび) and crab (かに) are on the mandatory allergen list. Squid (いか) and abalone (あわび) sit on the recommended list, so they may appear only in the ingredient list without a callout.
- Korea: crab (게), shrimp (새우), squid (오징어), and the shellfish group 조개류 (counted as one item that includes oyster, abalone, and mussel) are each designated items, declared in the boxed 함유 ("contains") callout.
- Mainland China: allergen labeling is voluntary under the current standard (GB 7718-2011); the revised standard GB 7718-2025 makes crustaceans one of the mandatory categories when it takes effect on March 16, 2027. Mollusks are not among the eight categories.
Frequently asked questions
How are shrimp and crab written on Chinese, Korean, and Japanese labels?
Shrimp is 虾 (trad. 蝦, xiā) in Chinese, 새우 (saeu) in Korean, and えび / エビ / 海老 (ebi) in Japanese. Crab is 蟹 or 螃蟹 (xiè / pángxiè) in Chinese, 게 (ge) in Korean, and かに / カニ / 蟹 (kani) in Japanese.
What do 甲殻類, 갑각류, and 甲壳类 mean?
All three are the word "crustaceans" - the category covering shrimp, crab, lobster, and crawfish - in Japanese (kōkakurui), Korean (gapgangnyu), and Chinese (jiǎqiàolèi; trad. 甲殼類). The parallel mollusk-shellfish category words are 貝類 (Japanese), 조개류 (Korean), and 贝类 / trad. 貝類 (Chinese).
Does oyster sauce contain shellfish?
Oyster sauce is made with oyster extract, and oysters are mollusks. On labels it appears as 蚝油 (trad. 蠔油) in Chinese, 굴소스 in Korean, and オイスターソース in Japanese. In Korea, oyster is part of the designated 조개류 shellfish group; mollusks like squid, oyster, and clam are not US major allergens, so even domestic labels will not necessarily call them out.