虾酱是华南地区、胶东半岛、香港、东南亚和韩国沿海地区常见的调味料，是用小虾加入盐，发酵磨成粘稠状后，在阳光下暴晒把水分蒸发而成。出产虾酱的地方，通常还会制作虾膏，虾膏的制作方法与虾酱相似，主要以延长日晒与发酵期，将滑稠状的虾酱再浓缩，如此可延长保存期并增加味道，而成品会呈固体块状。常见的虾酱会呈紫红色，虾膏的颜色则是咖啡色，两者味道都很咸。虾酱一般会放入玻璃瓶出售，而虾膏则使用塑料袋包装。不论虾酱与虾膏在使用上都须有相当的烹调技巧与搭配的副料，故有业者将虾膏加上副料制作出方便酱式的调味虾酱，以方便消费者使用。另由于酱与膏字在文本表达上本就混淆，有些纯虾膏产品亦标示为虾酱，以致消费者常有误购。

Shrimp paste or shrimp sauce, is a common ingredient used in Southeast Asian and Southern Chinese cuisine. It is known as terasi (also spelled trassi, terasie) in Indonesian, ngapi (ငါးပိ [ŋəpḭ]) in Burmese, kapi (กะปิ  [kapìʔ]) in Thai, Khmer (កាពិ [kaapiʔ]) and Lao (ກະປິ  [kapíʔ]), belacan (also spelled belachan, blachang) in Malay, mắm ruốc, mắm tép and mắm tôm in Vietnamese (the name depends on the shrimp used), bagoong alamang (also known as bagoong aramang) in Tagalog, haam ha/ha jeung in Cantonese Chinese and hom ha/hae ko (Pe̍h-ōe-jī:hê-ko) in Min Nan Chinese. The Chakma people from the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, who call it sidol, use shrimp paste extensively in their cuisine.