Not only meat, but also fish labelled badly

Pangasius sold as sole

Insiders of the fishing industry state that
within the industry the usage of wrong labels is as widely spread as in the
meat industry. Cheap pangasius often gets switched with the more expensive
sole, while the weight of salmon gets increased by adding ten to fifteen percent of
salt and water, making it more expensive.

Ocean conservation organisation Oceana
announced last week that research unveiled a research in 1200 samples of fish, where one third was sold under the wrong name. This makes David Higgins of Interpol ask the
question if supermarkets can still vouch for the origin of their fish: “My
question to them is: what is in your fish sticks?”

Horse meat scandal reaches Ikea sausage

Almost every day there are new reports
concerning fraud with horse meat: now also sausages sold by Ikea have been pulled
from the shelves, because they contained horse meat. The sausages are no longer
sold in France, Great Britain, Spain, Ireland and Portugal.

The sausages are still being sold in other
countries, because they use other suppliers. Earlier Ikea stopped selling their
famous köttbullar after horse meat was discovered in a package of frozen
meatballs.

High fines only solution

Controls don’t seem to have any effect, so cheating
suppliers have to be dealt with in a strong way, states economics professor
Gerrit Antonides. “Only in this way can consumer trust be repaired.” Bart van
Opzeeland, director of Dutch consumer organisation Foodwatch, says the only way to stop fraud is to
enforce high fines.

Antonides also believes that the current scandal
will have detrimental effects on A-brands: consumers gladly pay a bit more
for these brands if they believe they are safer and of a higher quality, but if
that advantage is no longer in effect, they will start looking for cheaper home
brands.