Saving Seafood

Seafood fraud a hot topic at US restaurant show

May 21, 2019 — Seafood fraud is a hot topic at the ongoing National Restaurant Show, taking place from 18 to 21 May in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

Celebrity chefs Barton Seaver, Rick Bayless, and Andrew Zimmern all touched on the topic during public appearances at the show, as did executives from several top foodservice companies.

“The seafood industry as a whole is ill-served and everyone loses when seafood fraud happens,” Barton Seaver, a chef, author, and founder of the Coastal Culinary Academy, told SeafoodSource at the event, which is the largest U.S. restaurant show.

Seaver spoke on a panel about seafood mislabeling and sustainability along with Bayless, who is the chef and owner of Frontera Grill and other restaurants, and Josephine Theal, director of category management for food and hospital management firm Delaware North.

“We as operators create an environment in which fraud can profit,” Seaver said. “If I as a chef am only willing to buy cod, then I’ve created a situation where pollock needs to become cod,” Seaver said. Some restaurants are okay with buying the “flaky white fish of the day” and labeling it “cod,” Seaver added.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Bayless, Moonen among 50 US chefs to sign Portland Pact on MSA

November 21, 2018 — American celebrity seafood restauranteurs Rick Bayless and Rick Moonen are among the first 50 chefs who have signed on to the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s organized effort to “protect the strong conservation measures of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA)”.

Undercurrent News reported earlier how the Monterey Bay Aquarium was planning to start on Nov. 7, the day after the US mid-term election, rallying chefs to sign a document produced at a meeting in Portland, Oregon, on Oct. 24. The so-called “Portland Pact for Sustainable Seafood” calls on “the new Congress to prioritize the long-term health of US fish stocks by protecting the strong conservation measures of the [MSA]”.

Commercial fishing groups that support Alaska Republican representative Don Young’s MSA reauthorization bill, HR 200, earlier expressed concern that the Monterey Bay Aquarium effort was an attack on the bill, which was passed by the US House of Representatives but requires Senate action before the expiration of the 115th Congress in December. The bill makes some of the most significant changes in MSA’s 42-year history, giving fishery regulatory bodies much more needed flexibility, say its champions.

But HR 200, which would have to be re-introduced in the 116th Congress if not successful in the next few weeks, already faces an uphill battle in the new House as it has enjoyed little support from the soon-to-be-in-charge Democrats.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium, which runs the Seafood Watch sustainability initiative, is one of a number of ocean conservation and environmental advocacy groups opposed to Young’s bill. The Environmental Defense Fund, Earthjustice, Oceana North America, the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, Seafood Harvesters of America, Fortune Fish & Gourmet, and Santa Monica Seafood have also expressed opposition. They say it would undermine previously established fishing policies and endanger many valuable species.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

AP Investigation: Fish billed as local isn’t always local

June 14, 2018 — Even after winter storms left East Coast harbors thick with ice, some of the country’s top chefs and trendy restaurants were offering sushi-grade tuna supposedly pulled in fresh off the coast of New York.

But it was just an illusion. No tuna was landing there. The fish had long since migrated to warmer waters.

In a global industry plagued by fraud and deceit, conscientious consumers are increasingly paying top dollar for what they believe is local, sustainably caught seafood. But even in this fast-growing niche market, companies can hide behind murky supply chains that make it difficult to determine where any given fish comes from. That’s where national distributor Sea To Table stepped in, guaranteeing its products were wild and directly traceable to a U.S. dock — and sometimes the very boat that brought it in.

However, an Associated Press investigation found the company was linked to some of the same practices it vowed to fight. Preliminary DNA tests suggested some of its yellowfin tuna likely came from the other side of the world, and reporters traced the company’s supply chain to migrant fishermen in foreign waters who described labor abuses, poaching and the slaughter of sharks, whales and dolphins.

The New York-based distributor was also offering species in other parts of the country that were illegal to catch, out of season and farmed.

Over the years, Sea To Table has become a darling in the sustainable seafood movement, building an impressive list of clientele, including celebrity chef Rick Bayless, Chopt Creative Salad chain, top universities and the makers of home meal kits such as HelloFresh.

“It’s sad to me that this is what’s going on,” said Bayless, an award-winning chef who runs eight popular restaurants and hosts a PBS cooking series. He said he loved the idea of being directly tied to fishermen — and the pictures and “wonderful stories” about their catch. “This throws quite a wrench in all of that.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Boston Herald