If you’re less finicky about your shellfish, the vein might not bother you at all. Zachary Ranard, a Cincinnati-based shrimp importer, says if he’s cooking just for himself, he’ll rarely bother deveining shrimp.

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“Because shrimp are bottom-feeders, it’s going to give a little more muddy taste, you could say, like catfish kind of have,” he says. “But to the layman, and especially if you put the shrimp in pasta or something, you’re 100 percent not going to taste it. But when I tell people ‘Eat the vein. It doesn’t matter,’ people look at me like ‘What the hell?’”

Ranard points out that many shrimp farmers are trying to minimize the vein’s presence before the shrimp is even packaged. He says some farmers will stop feeding the shrimp a bit before the shellfish are harvested so they’ll be more likely to clear their digestive tracts. When it comes to wild-caught shrimp, that’s not possible, so those tend to have a more prominent vein. If you’re excited when you finally find a brand of shrimp that has clean veins, though, don’t expect that to be consistent.

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“There’s hundreds of shrimp packers and thousands of farmers, so even if you buy a specific brand of shrimp every time, that doesn’t mean the shrimp’s coming from the same farmer every time,” he says.

Bottom line, seafood-industry associations including The Texas Shrimp Marketing Program agree that deveining isn’t a mandatory step when preparing the shellfish: “Whether or not to devein shrimp is a matter of personal preference. In general, small and medium shrimp do not need deveining except for cosmetic purposes.”

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Bottom line for these bottom feeders: With large prawns, deveining is something you should consider. With smaller shrimp, you probably won’t even notice the vein, but if you favor peace of mind, then go for it. It’s mostly psychological: Is the work of deveining the shrimp or the expense of buying deveined shrimp worth it to not think about eating shrimp poo? Having thought about shrimp poo for far too long this week, I think the answer is an emphatic yes, no matter how long the deveining takes me.