The Huffington Post reported on Feb. 21 that there is a national seafood fraud. That means seafood is being mislabeled to say it is what it is not.
The Huffington Post received their information from Oceana, an international ocean advocacy group, that released a report on the national seafood fraud.
The report is one of the largest on seafood fraud to date. It found that one-third of fish tested was mislabeled.
Oceana performed DNA testing from 2010 to 2012 on 1,215 fish samples from 674 retail outlets in 21 states. In this study, Oceana found seafood fraud everywhere it tested, with rates hitting as high as 52 percent in Southern California.
Check here to see if fish being sold in your area is mislabeled. You can also check to see which fish are being mislabeled. There are so many that there is a chance that you are buying them. The United States is the second largest seafood-consuming country worldwide behind China. More than 90 percent of the seafood consumed is imported and mislabeled.
Dr. Kimberly Warner, report author and senior scientist at Oceana, released a statement to The Huffington Post:
"Some of the fish substitutions we found are just disturbing. Apart from being cheated, many consumers are being denied the right to choose fish wisely based on health or conservation concerns.”
Concerned consumers have the same general opinion:
"We would not stand for beef or chicken being swapped for other forms of meat one-third of the time and we should not stand for the same being done with our seafood."
Check the label the next time you purchase fish from your local supermarket.
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