February 21, 2013 — US consumers are frequently served a different type of fish than what they pay for, according to results released Thursday from one of the nation’s largest seafood fraud investigations.
Between 2010 and 2012, the nonprofit Oceana collected more than 1,200 seafood samples from 674 retail outlets in 21 states and conducted DNA testing that found one-third of the samples were mislabeled.
Fish advertised as grouper, cod, and snapper were often less desirable, cheaper, or more readily available species, according to Oceana, a Washington, D.C., group that focuses on fighting seafood fraud.
Grocery stores in the Boston region claiming to sell cod substituted another fish 31 percent of the time, the report said.
DNA testing found that 52 percent of the samples were misrepresented in Southern California, the highest mislabeling rate nationwide.
Of 120 samples from across the country that were advertised as red snapper, only seven turned out to be that fish.
“Everywhere we looked for seafood fraud, we found it,” said Beth Lowell, a campaign director for Oceana. “It’s not a regional issue. It’s a widespread problem across the US that needs national attention.”
Read the full story at The Boston Globe