Photo Credit: © Josh Withers/ Shutterstock.com
February 25, 2013 |
Imagine yourself at a restaurant ready to order your favorite dish
and being told by your server that there is a one in three chance you
will not receive the same item that is on the menu. It might be the real
thing... or it could be a completely different food in disguise. Would
you order it anyway? Most consumers would probably say no because when
you eat at a restaurant or purchase food at a grocery store you expect
to get exactly what you paid for. Unfortunately, this may not be the
case for the seafood you order in America, according to
a new nationwide study released today by Oceana that found high levels of seafood fraud at restaurants and grocery stores across the country.
Oceana's
study tested more than 1,200 seafood samples through DNA analysis in Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and
other major cities,
and found that 33 percent of seafood tested was mislabeled, according
to Food and Drug Administration guidelines. In some cities the amount of
fraud found was even higher than the national average. In Austin and
Houston for example, 49 percent of the samples were fraudulently
labeled. In Boston (including testing done by the
Boston Globe) the mislabeling rate was 48 percent. And in Southern California, more than half the seafood (52 percent) was mislabeled!
Of
all the places Oceana tested, sushi joints were the biggest culprits,
with a national mislabeling rate of 74 percent. The most common type of
sushi fraud was the substitution of escolar for white tuna, which
occurred 84 percent of the time. Escolar, nicknamed the "ex-lax" fish,
is a snake mackerel and not actually a tuna at all, and can cause
serious digestive issues for some people who eat more than a few ounces.
The FDA warns against eating this fish in large portions and it is even
outright banned in Italy and Japan. But avoiding escolar is nearly
impossible if you are unaware that it is actually being served.
Generally
with seafood fraud, desirable and more expensive species like snapper
are substituted for cheaper, more abundant fish such as tilapia. It can
happen during shipping, processing, in grocery stores and restaurants or
anywhere in between on the seafood supply chain. Wherever it happens
though, consumers and our oceans ultimately pay the price. Seafood fraud
compromises our ability to make healthy and conservation-friendly
seafood choices, while also hurting our wallets.
So what is the
solution to seafood fraud? Simply put -- traceability, or tracking our
fish from boat to plate. More than 90 percent of the seafood we eat in
America is imported and less than 1 percent is tested by the FDA for
fraud. It may seem like a daunting task to monitor it all, but it really
should not be. While some voluntary seafood traceability programs
already exist in the U.S., tracking our seafood should be the norm, not a
rare occurrence. We must demand that all seafood sold in the U.S. is
traced from boat to plate, ensuring that it is safe, legal and honestly
labeled. While U.S. fishermen provide much of this information at the
dock, like where, when and how a fish was caught, little to none of it
follows the fish throughout the rest of the supply chain. The technology
for this kind of traceability already exists and the federal government
simply needs to make it a mandate.
Consumers can also take steps
on their own to stop seafood fraud. They should start by asking
questions -- what kind of fish are they being served, is it wild or
farmed-raised, and where and how was it caught. Buy seafood that is
traceable and support the voluntary programs that are already in place.
Check the price. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. And
finally, when possible, purchase the whole fish. Species are easier to
identify this way and seafood fraud is much harder to pull off if the
fish is not already filleted and processed.
"Eat more fish!" is
the common cry we've all heard from our doctors over the years and
there's a lot of truth behind it. Wild seafood is healthier than other
forms of animal protein. It's better for the environment. It's more cost
effective to produce. But the seafood we eat must be honestly labeled
so we can make informed decisions -- for our own personal health and for
the sake of the oceans. We would not stand for beef or chicken being
swapped for other forms of meat one-third of the time and we should not
stand for the same being done with our seafood.
Andrew
Sharpless has led Oceana since 2003 as its Chief Executive Officer.
Oceana is the largest international conservation organization fully
dedicated to protecting the oceans.
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