December 17, 2024 — A San Fransisco, California, U.S.A.-based seafood distributor has issued an urgent recall of certain Fanny Bay, Buckley Bay, and Royal Miyagi oysters due to multiple confirmed illnesses from norovirus contamination.
The oysters, originally sourced from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based Pacific Northwest Shellfish and Richmond, British Columbia, Canada-based Union Bay Seafood by S&M Shellfish were distributed to retailers and distributors throughout the U.S.
November 26, 2026 — Craving fish? Your seafood may be “catfishing” you.
Studies show diners may be getting a completely different, usually cheaper fish than the one they ordered.
It’s called seafood fraud, and it’s happening in quite a few Chicago restaurants, studies show.
NBC 5 Responds visited Hooked on Fish market in Edgewater to find out more about seafood fraud. Owner Karen Wollins explained that some consumers fall victim because it can be difficult to tell one fish from another just by looking at them.
“A lot of people don’t really know,” said Wollins, who has operated Hooked on Fish for the past decade. The market specializes in selling responsibly sourced, sustainable fish.
So we asked Kathy, a Hooked on Fish customer and diehard seafood fan, to try to identify a few fish species based on their fillets in a display window.
November 21, 2024 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is asking the seafood industry, academia, and other relevant parties for more information on perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in seafood.
“This request is part of our continued work to increase our understanding of the potential for PFAS exposure from seafood and to reduce dietary exposure to PFAS that may pose a health concern,” the FDA said in a recent update.
September 30, 2024 — Ahi steak. Akami sashimi. Albacore on sourdough. Whether you smoked yellowfin on the grill or spread skipjack on a sandwich, chances are you’ve had tuna recently.
On average, Americans eat around two pounds of the fish per year, more than any other seafood except for shrimp and salmon. And for good reason: Tuna is tasty and versatile, and the canned variety costs as little as a dollar.
But is it good for you? Should you be worried about its mercury content? And what about the health of our oceans? Here’s what to know before you pop open that next can for lunch.
Tuna is about as nutritious as a food can be.
It’s packed with protein, minerals and vitamins, said Chris Vogliano, a dietitian and research director at the educational nonprofit Food and Planet. It has more selenium than just about any other meat. It’s also low in fat, Dr. Vogliano noted — but that means it has fewer omega-3 fatty acids than some other seafood.
There’s not a huge nutritional difference between canned tuna, sushi and a tuna steak, he added. Cooking the fish might lower its vitamin D, and the canning process might leach out a few nutrients, he said, but its nutritional value is largely the same.
Tuna’s one big health drawback, experts say, is the risk posed by mercury, a neurotoxin. This heavy metal enters the ocean mostly from human activities like burning fossil fuels. It’s absorbed by small organisms and works its way up the food chain and accumulates in bigger, longer-lived species — like sharks, swordfish and, yes, tuna.
In high enough concentrations, mercury can cause serious health problems. Cases of mercury poisoning are rare in the United States, but experts worry about the long-term effects of mercury on the brain — and elevated levels are often more common among urban and coastal populations that eat more seafood.
So what does this mean for tuna eaters? The answer is nuanced because the amount of mercury depends on the species — and there are 15 types of tuna, all of which could end up on a dinner plate. The smallest (and often cheapest), like skipjack, have very little mercury. Albacore and yellowfin can have three times as much; bigeye and bluefin can have far more, Dr. Vogliano said.
September 17, 2024 — There was a time not all that many years ago when the restaurant industry marketed lobster as a luxury item. With the exception of shoreside clam shacks and resort eateries, enjoying lobster was mostly a white-tablecloth experience.
These days, however, lobster is seemingly everywhere – in lobster rolls, as part of grilled cheese sandwiches, and as a mac & cheese mix-in. Restaurants at all price points are featuring lobster: This summer, chains like Friendly’s and 99 Restaurants had lobster rolls on their menus. Even independents are on the lobster bandwagon, as exemplified by Villa Napoletana in East Longmeadow, where a month-long lobster menu promotion is underway.
The industry’s appetite for lobster seems almost limitless. Cousins Maine Lobster, the food truck franchisor whose menu is lobster-dominated, this month announced plans to open another 250 outlets over the next five years. Some industry experts predict future demand for lobster to continue to grow at an 8%-plus rate
August 6, 2024 — There’s no question that fish and seafood are good for us. Diets rich in seafood are consistently linked to lower risk of heart disease. For many years the American Heart Association has recommended that we eat at least two servings per week, and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans echo that same advice.
Seafood is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which not only promote cardiovascular health, but help reduce inflammation in the body and help strengthen the immune system. Children born to mothers who consume seafood during their pregnancies have been shown to have better neurocognitive function.
The richest sources of omega-3s are fatty or oily fish, which include salmon, sardines, and mackerel. All fish contain these healthy fats, but the fattier fish contain more.
July 26, 2024 — Few foods evoke summer in New England like the lobster roll. The sandwiches are as iconic as lighthouses and the dropped r’s of the northeastern U.S. region’s unique Yankee dialects. Once a lowly work lunch for fishermen, the lobster roll is in such demand today that Hannaford supermarkets has announced a $10 version of the coastal classic, available across stores until Labor Day.
“As New England tourism has grown, the rise of the lobster roll has gone along with it,” says Evan Hennessey, chef-owner of Stages at One Washington and the Living Room in Dover, New Hampshire. “It’s this incredible, flavorful, quintessential right-from-the-ocean New England food that—and here’s the key part—you can walk around and eat.”
Lobster didn’t always have such cachet. The crustaceans were once so abundant that they could easily be caught in shallow waters. “For a long time, [lobsters] were just local food—stuff you ate if you lived on the coast,” says Boston University food historian Megan Elias.
Branden Lewis, chef and sustainability professor at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, says that English and Portuguese sailors, shipwrights, and fishermen created the earliest iteration of the lobster roll by tucking the discarded trimmings of tail and claw meat between pieces of bread.
Lobster recipes didn’t gain cultural capital until the country’s nascent elite began vacationing along the East Coast, especially in states like Rhode Island, where they built summer “cottages.” The rolls were a mainstay until the early 1960s, when the country found itself besotted by the “proper” cooking techniques of Julia Child.
New England’s iconic sandwich came back into fashion in the 1990s, with the renewed interest in American regional foods. “By then, lobster is even more expensive,” Elias says. “There are even fewer of them. So it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s regional and it’s also hard to get, so it must be cool.’”
July 12, 2024 — The Seafood Nutrition Partnership (SNP), an Arlington, Virginia, U.S.A.-based nonprofit that aims to promote the health and nutritional benefits of seafood, has launched a Summer Seafood Challenge, drawing support from companies up and down the seafood supply chain.
The campaign, which kicked off 20 June and runs through 20 August, asks participants to create or join a team on Give Lively – a free fundraising platform for nonprofits – commit to eating seafood at least twice a week for 60 days, and engage their friends, family, and colleagues to join the initiative and donate. They are also encouraged to share their seafood experiences on social media using the hashtags #SeafoodChallenge, #SummerSeafoodChallenge, and #Seafood2xWk and tagging @Seafood4Health in their posts.
June 11, 2024 — Yellowfin and bigeye tuna steaks and loins sold across the United States – and likely Europe and other markets – are increasingly probable to be tainted with unlisted ingredients, including citric acid, beet extract, and sodium, according to three global seafood executives.
Up to 60 percent of yellowfin tuna steaks exported from Vietnam undergo a process through which they are injected with a saline solution and then bathed in a mixture of beet juice, paprika, and additives like sodium ascorbate and ascorbic acid. After this, they are treated with carbon monoxide or a tasteless, or clear, smoke. The process vastly improves the coloration of lower-grade tuna and gives the product an added water weight that can increase its value by 15 to 20 percent, the executives said.
June 8, 2024 — For the first time farmed aquatic production has exceeded the catch from traditional captured fisheries, the U.N. food and agriculture agency said on Friday, underscoring hopes that aquaculture can meet growing global demand for seafood.
In its latest biennial report on the state of world fisheries, the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said global fisheries and aquaculture production in 2022 hit a record 223.2 million tonnes.