Cy has been talking about all these stories he has been running across where the consumer is buying food items that are misrepresented. A few examples are fake honey, calamari (we hope this one is not true because it is nasty), and lemon juice. The big story that we keep hearing again and again is how often you are told you are buying one kind of fish (at a fish store or sushi bars) when you are actually purchasing another. A fish (escolar) that is often substituted for white tuna in sushi bars, can even cause “serious digestive issues.”

From Dr. Oz:

“As part of our campaign, Oceana conducted DNA testing of seafood meals in multiple cities across the country to get to the bottom of how much bait and switch was occurring. What did we find? Everywhere we tested, we found seafood fraud: 39% of seafood tested in New York, 55% in Los Angeles, 31% in Miami, and 48% in Boston (including testing by The Boston Globe) were mislabeled as entirely different types of fish than listed on the label.  ”

Oceana sent me their DC-specific story.

-JAY

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“Oceana Study Uncovers Widespread Seafood Fraud in Washington, Nationwide

26% of Seafood Mislabeled in D.C. Grocery Stores, Restaurants & Sushi Venues

WASHINGTON—Oceana, the largest international advocacy group working solely to protect the world’s oceans, uncovered widespread seafood fraud across the United States, including in the nation’s capital, according to a new report released today. As part of one of the largest seafood fraud investigations in the world to date, DNA testing confirmed that 26 percent of the 105 seafood samples collected by Oceana in Washington, D.C., and one-third, or 33 percent, of the 1,215 fish samples collected nationwide were mislabeled, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines.

“Purchasing seafood has become the ultimate guessing game for U.S. consumers,” said Beth Lowell, campaign director at Oceana. “Whether you live in the nation’s capital or Kansas, no one is safe from seafood fraud. We need to track our seafood from boat to plate so that consumers can be more confident that the fish they purchase is safe, legal and honestly labeled.”

Oceana also found seafood fraud in the other cities it tested, including mislabeling rates of 52 percent in Southern California, 49 percent in Austin and Houston, 48 percent in Boston (including testing by The Boston Globe), 39 percent in New York City, 38 percent in Northern California and South Florida, 36 percent in Denver, 35 percent in Kansas City (MO/KS), 32 percent in Chicago, 21 percent in Portland (OR) and 18 percent in Seattle.

Oceana’s study targeted fish with regional significance as well as those found to be frequently mislabeled in previous studies such as red snapper, cod, tuna and wild salmon. Every one of the snapper and 53 percent of the tuna samples were mislabeled, which is consistent with the national trend of 87 and 59 percent, respectively.

In Washington, D.C., sushi venues had the highest level of mislabeling at 81 percent, followed by other restaurants at 40 percent and grocery stores at 3 percent. These findings matched the national mislabeling trends: 74 percent at sushi venues, 38 percent at other restaurants and 18 percent at grocery stores. Overall, 44 percent of the retail outlets visited nationwide sold mislabeled seafood.

“Some of the fish substitutions we found are just disturbing,” said Dr. Kimberly Warner, report author and senior scientist at Oceana. “Apart from being cheated, many consumers are being denied the right to choose fish wisely based on health or conservations concerns.”

Among the report’s other key findings in Washington, D.C. include:

• More than one in three retail outlets sold mislabeled fish.
• Every sushi venue sold mislabeled fish.
• All of the white tuna samples were actually escolar, a species that can cause serious digestive issues for some individuals who eat more than a few ounces.
• All of the snapper samples were mislabeled, with most actually being tilapia.
• Salmon was the most commonly collected fish and all were correctly labeled.
• 10 percent of the 21 cod samples were mislabeled.

About Seafood Fraud

Seafood fraud can come in many different forms – from mislabeling fish and falsifying documents, to adding too much ice to packaging.

Today, more than 90 percent of the seafood consumed in the U.S. is imported, while less than 1 percent is inspected by the government specifically for fraud. With more than 1,700 different species of seafood from all over the world now available for sale in the U.S., it is unrealistic to expect consumers to be able to independently and accurately determine what they are actually eating.

Despite growing concern about where our food comes from, consumers are frequently served the wrong fish – a completely different species than the one they paid for. Oceana and others have found that seafood mislabeling often disguises fish that are less desirable, cheaper or more readily available.

Our fish often travels through an increasingly complex and obscure seafood supply chain, making it difficult to identify if fraud is occurring on the boat, during processing, at the retail counter or somewhere else along the way.

Oceana is calling on the federal government to require traceability of all seafood sold in the U.S. Tracking fish from boat to plate would not only significantly reduce seafood fraud and help keep illegally caught fish out of the U.S. market, it would also give consumers more information about the fish they purchase, including the species name, where, when and how it was caught, if it was farmed or previously frozen and if any additives were using during processing.

The National Highlights of this story can be found here. The Full Report can be found here.”

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