In the United States, mislabeled seafood is a prevalent problem. Consumers are faced with a myriad of labels and numerical ratings created by individual food markets to decipher. The term is used everywhere, yet what that actually means remains a mystery to most of us. Beth Lowell, campaign director for Oceana—the world’s largest international organization focused solely on ocean conservation 1—stated, “Purchasing seafood has become the ultimate guessing game for U.S. consumers. Whether you live in Florida or Kansas, no one is safe from seafood fraud.”2 The U.S. Government Accountability Office defines “seafood fraud” as mislabeling for financial gain.3 Even if consumers try to make the healthy and sustainable choice, it is possible that the product they are given is neither.
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Commonly Mislabeled Seafood
Red snapper and salmon are two of the most commonly mislabeled fish. In a 2013 nationwide investigation, Oceana found that only seven of the 120 red snapper samples were actually red snapper. This is concerning for several reasons. First, red snapper is expensive, yet markets and restaurants often sell cheaper farmed fish, such as tilapia, under the guise of red snapper. Therefore, consumers are not getting the quality that they are paying for. Second, consuming fish with high mercury levels is discouraged for pregnant women and children. However, tilefish, a fish with unhealthy levels of mercury, is often sold as red snapper, a fish with safe levels of mercury. Therefore, consumers’ health is in jeopardy without consumers even realizing it.4
When dealing with salmon, it is not a question of whether it is salmon or another species, but rather whether it is farmed or wild salmon. Wild salmon is an incredibly healthy choice, however despite the management of Pacific fisheries, there is not enough wild salmon to meet consumer demand. The global annual wild salmon harvest is two billion pounds per year, which divides into one serving per person per year. 5 Salmon is such an under-supplied sought-after commodity that an product is in the works—of course faced with major—and justified—opposition.
Salmon farms have been blamed for polluting oceans, spreading sea lice, and allowing escapees to taint wild salmon populations through the spread of disease and parasites. To deal with these issues, the Worldwide Wildlife Fund founded the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) to create standards for fish farms. ASC standards cover water quality, feed composition, escapees, , and worker wages at fish farms – to name a few. The quality of salmon coming from fish farms is slowly improving. In fact, for the first time, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch awarded a “buy” recommendation to a salmon farm in Chile.6 However, despite whether the quality of farmed salmon ends up being equal to that of wild salmon, transparency is still important and consumers should be able to know which type of salmon they are eating.
Fighting Seafood Fraud
Mislabeled seafood jeopardizes the growing sustainable seafood industry because for one thing, consumers may get discouraged and go back to buying whatever fish is cheapest. In order not to take a step backwards, U.S. regulators need to address this problem. Oceana was not able to determine the exact causes of seafood fraud. However, they believe that the phenomenon is most likely due to outright fraud, human error, loose paperwork, and difficulty identifying similar-looking fish. 7 Overfishing has also exacerbated seafood fraud; with wild populations in decline, fishermen pull in a larger variety of species. Instead of going through each fish to see what species it is, it is easier to label the whole batch as one type.8 Interestingly, in every city studied sushi bars were the biggest culprits of seafood fraud, with other restaurants ranked in the middle, and grocery stores found most likely to sell fish honestly.9
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has laws in place so that seafood fraud should not be an issue. Gavin Gibbons, National Fisheries Institute spokesperson, stated, “We have to ask the FDA, and if they say they need more funding or tools we need to put resources in place to make sure they have that…We suggest that folks on Capitol Hill spend their time looking at the funding and resources that the FDA has.”10
Beyond relying on the FDA, citizens are starting up companies to diminish seafood fraud. For example, Jared Auerbach from Red’s Best Seafood has developed software that tracks fish from boat to market through barcodes on packets of fish. Gibbons stated, “I think technology will help with transparency and accountability. We have to remember that from an investigative standpoint, these kinds of investigations aren’t that hard. All you need are a sample for DNA, a menu, and the invoice.”11 Hopefully, with increased transparency, seafood fraud will cease to be an issue.
Resources
If you are interested in learning more about how to successfully shop for healthy and sustainable seafood, check out National Geographic’s interactive Seafood Decision Guide. The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program is another trustworthy source of information. You can access information on their website or on-the-go by downloading their free app onto your phone.
