More than one in three packets of fish or shellfish lies about its contents. The Guardian made this bold claim after analysing dozens of recent studies on fish fraud.
Incorrect labelling
Many of the studies consulted used relatively recent DNA analysis techniques. When comparing the sale of fish sold under the name “snapper” by fishmongers, supermarkets and restaurants in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States, the researchers found that about 40 per cent of the fish tested did not have an accurate label.
Another large-scale study shows the scale of the problem within restaurants. Of the 283 samples secretly collected in European restaurants, about a third of the seafood was found to be mislabelled. Most of these cases happened in Spain, Iceland, Finland and Germany, where 40 to 50 per cent of the dishes examined did not correspond to what was on the menu. Species such as brown grouper, butterfish, pikeperch and sole were the most frequently tampered with.
Pangasius
Customers often get a different fish from the same family on their plate. Samples of scallops in Germany and shark fillets in Italy showed that respectively 48 per cent and 45 per cent of the samples were, in fact, a cheaper variety.
And, fraudsters are not afraid to take it a step further and sell completely different species. The relatively cheap pangasius, which is cultivated on a massive scale in Vietnam and Cambodia, is often sold as cod, sole or haddock because it has a similar taste and texture.
Illegal fishing
Fish fraud has been a common problem for some time. As fish and seafood are among the most internationally traded foods and pass through intricate and non-transparent supply chains, misleading food labelling is a major risk.
Large-scale illegal fishing exacerbates the problem, claims Rashid Sumaila, a fisheries economist at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia. Between eight and fourteen million tonnes of fish are caught illegally every year, mainly along the coasts of Africa, Asia and South America. The seafood is then ”laundered” on large transhipment vessels.
