Shrimp and prawn as food

Shrimps and prawns are types of shellfish seafood that are consumed worldwide. Prawns and shrimps are crustacea and are very similar in appearance with the terms often used interchangeably in commercial farming and wild fisheries. A 1990s distinction made in Indian aquaculture literature, which increasingly uses the term "prawn" only for the freshwater forms of palaemonids and "shrimp" for the marine penaeids that belong to different suborders of Decapoda. This has not been universally accepted.

In the United Kingdom, the word "prawn" is more common on menus than "shrimp", whereas the opposite is the case in North America. Also, the term "prawn" is loosely used for larger types, especially those that come 30 (or fewer) to the kilogram — such as "king prawns", yet sometimes known as "jumbo shrimp". In Britain, very small crustaceans with a brownish shell are called shrimps, and are used to make the traditional English dish of potted shrimps. Australia and some other Commonwealth nations follow this British usage to an even greater extent, using the word "prawn" almost exclusively. When Australian comedian Paul Hogan used the phrase, "I'll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you" in an American television advertisement, it was intended to make what he was saying easier for his American audience to understand, and was thus a deliberate distortion of what an Australian would typically say. The French term crevette is often encountered in restaurants.

All shellfish, including prawns and shrimps, are among the most common food allergens.

The Jewish dietary laws, kashrut forbid the eating of shellfish, including prawns and shrimps. Meanwhile, in Islamic dietary law, the Shafi'i, Maliki, Hanbali and Ja'fari schools allow the eating of shrimp, while the Hanafi school does not.

As with other seafood, crustacea are high in protein but low in food energy. A shrimp-based meal is also a significant source of cholesterol, from 122 mg to 251 mg per 100 g of shrimp, depending on the method of preparation. Shrimp consumption, however, is considered healthy for the circulatory system because the lack of significant levels of saturated fat in shrimp means that the high cholesterol content in shrimp actually improves the ratio of LDL to HDL cholesterol and lowers triglycerides.

Prawns are high in levels of omega-3s (generally beneficial) and low in levels of toxic mercury, with an FDA study in 2010 showing a level of 0.001 parts per million analysing only methylmercury.

Preparing for consumption the smaller shrimp is done just by shelling, whereas for the larger prawns usually involves removing the head, shell, tail, and "sand vein". A notable exception is drunken shrimp, a dish using freshwater shrimp that is often eaten alive, but immersed in ethanol to make consumption easier.

To shell a prawn, the tail is held while gently removing the shell around the body. The tail can be detached completely at this point, or left attached for presentation purposes. Although the head and shell are generally removed before consumption, they are edible when cooked. Much of the flavor of prawns comes from the shell, so it is preferable to cook them before shelling, otherwise by adding the shells to the cooking stock prior to straining or by flash cooking the shells in the pan to extract the "juices".