Widespread Seafood Fraud
February 25th, 2013Via: Oceana:
From 2010 to 2012, Oceana conducted one of the largest seafood fraud investigations in the world to date, collecting more than 1,200 seafood samples from 674 retail outlets in 21 states to determine if they were honestly labeled.
DNA testing found that one-third (33 percent) of the 1,215 samples analyzed nationwide were mislabeled, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines.
Of the most commonly collected fish types, samples sold as snapper and tuna had the highest mislabeling rates (87 and 59 percent, respectively), with the majority of the samples identified by DNA analysis as something other than what was found on the label. In fact, only seven of the 120 samples of red snapper purchased nationwide were actually red snapper. The other 113 samples were another fish.
Research Credit: RP
Living on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska, I’m spoiled. In the spring and summer, I walk to the beach from my house and dig razor clams and catch halibut, coho salmon and skate (substitute for scallops) with surf casting gear in 8 feet of water right from the beach. In July, I can dip net and rod & reel fish for hundreds of pounds of chrome bright Sockeye salmon in the Kenai river, 30 miles away. If I ever get a boat, jumbo shrimp, sea bass, yellow eye, cod, etc, are all nearby. There is also trout and steelhead in the Kasilof river, 8 miles away.
I am very grateful to have access to such abundant seafood resources and to know what I am getting- fresh seafood tainted with fukashima radiation in abundance that the government ignores because raising hell about how bad it is would collapse the world economy. Bon Apetite, my glow-in-the-dark friends.