E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSConservation group Oceana conducted DNA tests showing one-third of the fish examined was something other than what it was supposed to be. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
When you sit down for a meal at your favorite sushi restaurant, the bite at the end of those chopsticks probably isn’t what you think it is. A new report sheds light on this dirty secret of the food industry: Cheap fish is widely passed off as more expensive varieties, at customers’ expense.
One third of the 1,215 samples collected from grocery stores and restaurants by advocacy group Oceana were actually a different kind of fish than what the seller purported. The group found instances of fake fish across the country, and at all kinds of establishments. Nearly half of the 674 retailers Oceana visited sold mislabeled fish.
“Sushi venues had the worst level of mislabeling at 74 percent,” the group said. Excluding sushi restaurants, 38 percent of other restaurants sold mislabeled fish. (Grocery stores, which had the most accurately labeled fish, still had a mislabeling of 18 percent.)
"If you can’t trust your restaurant... it’s kind of off-putting," said Hem Borromeo, an academic adviser at Excelsior College who was not affiliated with the Oceana report. He said a New York Times article last year about fish mislabeling in New York City enlightened him about how pervasive the practice is.
At a sushi eatery he visited earlier this year, Borromeo said he encountered a piece of yellowtail he suspected not have been quite as advertised. “I had... a suspicion,” he said. He ate the mystery fish anyway, but added, “I didn’t go back there again.”
The most common mislabeled fish is snapper; only seven of Oceana’s 120 “snapper” samples were the real deal. Snapper is an easy target because it looks like other, cheaper fish. Once it’s skinned, filleted and cooked, it’s hard for even discerning foodies — or cooks, for that matter — to tell if what’s actually on the plate is tilapia.
There’s a tremendous financial incentive for restaurants to pass off cheaper fish to unsuspecting diners, said Marcus Guiliano, owner of Aroma Thyme Bistro in Ellenville, N.Y., a restaurant certified by the Green Restaurant Association. Guiliano video-blogs about mislabeled restaurant food at TruthinMenu.com.
Yoshikazu Tsuno / AFP - Getty Images
One third of the 1,215 fish samples collected from grocery stores and restaurants by advocacy group Oceana were mislabeled, according to a new report.
“If you bought cheap tilapia today, it would be maybe $3.50 a pound on the high side,” he said. The wholesale price of snapper, meanwhile, could be as much as $11 per pound, he said. And it’s not just snapper. Farmed Atlantic salmon wholesales for about $6 per pound, Guiliano said, while authentic wild salmon easily costs twice as much. Fake fish can boost profits, and customers are usually never the wiser.
For a restaurant owner to know what they’re actually getting, Guiliano said, “you buy from a person who works directly with the boats. I always ask where, when and how was it caught, and what was the name of the vessel."
From a business perspective, it’s hard for restaurateurs to budget food costs accurately if the price of a particular type of fish fluctuates; from a customer service perspective, it can be risky to tell diners an item on the menu isn’t available.
And marketing plays a powerful role, too.
"People just get stuck on names. That’s the big problem with a lot of items in our culinary field," said Paul Rother, a culinary school teacher and restaurant industry veteran.
“Those are things that help us.... market food," Guiliano said. "Certain things in a menu, when you write it, makes it more appealing."
For instance, the phrase “white tuna” has a certain cachet to it, yet 84 percent of the samples in Oceana’s study turned out instead to be escolar, a fatty, deep sea-dwelling fish that can give diners gastrointestinal distress.
“When I was younger I worked at a Greek [restaurant] and we used to get whole sides of escolar,” Rother said. Having broken down the fish into fillets, he said he knew escolar when he saw it. On one occasion, Rother confronted the owner of a sushi restaurant about the mislabeling. The owner angrily denied it, he said.
Fake fish is endemic, in part, because the market for seafood has become globalized and more complex, said Beth Lowell, Oceana’s campaign director for Stop Seafood Fraud. More than 90 percent of the seafood we eat is imported.
“The more hands, the more processing your seafood goes through, the more opportunities for seafood fraud. The further you get away from the whole fish, the more likely that seafood fraud can occur,” she said. Mislabeling, whether unintentional or deliberate, can happen when the fish is packed, shipped or sold by wholesalers or retailers.
For instance, as New England’s traditional cod-fishing industry dwindles — beyond the point of recovery, some worry — Americans eat cod that was caught in Norway and packed in China, fisheries economist Jenny Sun of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute told The Associated Press.
Less than 1 percent of seafood imports are screened for fraud, Lowell said. Oceana is campaigning for a traceability standard and more stepped-up enforcement. “There’s not a lot of enforcement on the labeling of seafood," she said. Importers and other middlemen who knowingly pass on this counterfeit fish are gambling that they won't get caught, Lowell said. "And they’re winning."
Leave a Comment:
This is so pathetic! We, as consumers, spend our meager budgets on eating healthy but we are also paying the price for this misrepresentation - we can't trust or rely on the FDA (or other federal organizations) to look out for our best interest !
Yep, pretty fishy the way they bait and switch us. However, expecting sellers or the FDA to do the right thing is like swimming upstream.
Shucks, I thought this article was going to be about this administration's "Bait and Switch" tactics.
Back to the article:
Maybe everyone should have a fish pond in their back yard and grow veggies behind the Obama beer distillery like the First Lady did in the Rose Garden. That way one could eat fish and veggies and have a beer.
Ido, you are right. In fact, the administration has a lot of "master bait-n-switchers". Or is it masturbatin' switchers? Or is it...
The restaurants were doing that in Florida with the grouper until a law was passed that you had to serve real grouper and not some substitute.
And this was driving some locals and tourists away.
Now when it says grouper, it's grouper.
.
Ido, lady and oneofthesame and your ilk...
this is what federal regulations are supposed to prevent but when you make a mantra of underfunding these agencies then they do not work properly thus opening the door for criticism of regulations and the agencies responsible for it. Both parties (biased towards repugnicans) have ALWAYS underfunded regulatory agencies to make them unable to perform their jobs and then complaint that we are wasting money so that the endgame of dismantling the regulatory agencies occurs. In addition, both party's president's have appointed industry grown officials to oversee them thus ensuring this viscous cycle.
Wake the eff up or atleast part the wool in front of your eyes.
Will never order snapper or tuna in a restaurant again. My favorite fish is basa, a type of catfish fillet. Very tasty and cheap and easy to spot. Cheaper and tastier than tilapia. I'll purchase salmon whole when on sale. Don't care if wild or farmed. Assume its farmed when I'm paying less than $5 lb. for it regardless of the label. Purchase canned tuna all the time for sandwiches and salads. I'm a boring fish eater I guess.
notbrightorsmart and your ilk...
My comment was only meant as a stupid joke, so get off your F'N holier than thou high horse.
Another thought. Why aren't all these grocery stores and restaurants being charged with fraud? They are defrauding us. The excuse of chefs and butchers not knowing one fish from another doesn't fly. If prepackaged then that supplier can suffer also. Just keep charging them with fraud and let them sort it out.
Hate fish and hate fishing even more
It's people! They're selling people meat!
Ido & jerryb ; Before you go flapping your gums, why don't you ask how many of these crooked fish mongers are " Tea Garbage Republicans " ? You do know that most business people follow the Nazi Propaganda known as Republicanism ? So, how much are you getting paid to spread your SLOP ? Don't you know this is an article about crooked business and not Politics ?
ldo Comment collapsed by the community
Shucks, I thought this article was going to be about this administration's "Bait and Switch" tactics.
=================================
The fallacy in that is that you said: "I thought". You and Jerryb are struggling with mental masturbation.,
OneOfTheSane
notbrightorsmart and your ilk...
My comment was only meant as a stupid joke
====================================
........as opposed to an "intelligent" joke. Stupid is as stupid does.
mike277
Hate fish and hate fishing even more
==========================
..do you prefer golf, where the great challenge is to bend down and pick up your ball?
the FDA, goverment and supreme court is owned by monsanto and the big food corporations. of course we cant trust them. to best thing to do is get to know a local farmer who is legit and if you dont have a local farmer then grow your own garden, go fishing and if legal where you live then you can raise your own livestock which would be 1000x better then the industrial factory farm system. it will be a much better life then to go to fast food places or grocery stores. you will look good and feel good.
I question when they state Pacific Salmon. I always ask them "What species?" as there are at least 5 different species of Pacific salmon and they all have a different taste and texture. Growing up in Alaska and enjoying good fish I find Atlantic salmon has no taste to me.
....and we won't even get into the question of meat. Look at the scandle sweeping England and France over horsemeat. Sometimes I wonder what's in our "ground beef". If you ever visit an abatoire you would never eat meat again.
Most businesses have some kind of trick to fool people and rip them off. I was in the jewelry manufacturing for over 20 years and most of the manufacturers would mix their gold at much lower karat and sell it to the public as 14K and they would end up making a killing(they still do). All my complaints to the authorities didn't make any difference, they were not interested. Buyer be aware.
Just me there is no need for confusing most republicans with teabaggers.
I don't think that many of you looked at the price of farmed raised catfish lately.
I wonder if I can get Mrs. Obama to come help me in my vegetable garden. I bet she set out peanuts and collard greens.
Oh yall help me. I can't decide between watermelons or cantaloupes. I already got my mater seeds and peppers.
I don't buy fish but on occassion. I can't stand anything that I have to debone on my plate as far as fish go. Mackerel's bones are edible and smoled mullet is good too.
Look at the scandle (sic) sweeping England...
Hey, Blackbird - ever hear of spell-check? No? It's that little icon with "ABC" above a check mark. Try it sometime. You might learn something.
well what do you expect, if you buy the fish from wall mart its imported from China, orange this yellow that white whatever, they will put the best selling label on whatever prop kill they can skim off the water. the only safe seafood is the one you caught yourself and that might be questionable. you want sea food move to the coast and get your own, or just accept what you get.
Holy mackerel... I post a little joke and then get personally attacked and called "stupid" by two people, one of which can't even figure out how to use the quote function.
WTF is wrong with people these days?
Personally, I'm not a big consumer of seafood. Not since I read that a lot of fish filet's are really sharks. And I love sharks. They are my favorite animal.
It also didn't help that I grew up on a beach with my underwater photographer parents. It's hard to eat them when their photos are hanging on the wall.
Don't worry ABC, Blackbird couldn't bother to spell ABATTOIR correctly either. And I have visited the abattoirs that process the beef, lamb, and poultry I buy. They're located on the farms of White Oak Pastures in southwestern Georgia and they humanely raise and humanely slaughter quality animals. It's not a problem with the process, it's large-scale corporate owned farms that are the problem.
Lady - The FDA is not a priority in Washington, especially amongst the GOP. They do what they can with the budget they're given. If bad fish or bad produce comes into the country, most often there's not an inspector there to stop it before it hits market due to budget cuts and furloughs. Just wait until March 1st. If the GOP lets the sequester take place, we'll probably start seeing third world diseases in about 6 months.
So I guess the expression "Something smells a little fishy!" has a double entendre here.
Switching fish to cheaper ones doesn't surprise me. But if as article states fish caught off Norway are being shipped to China to be packed surely does. How can that possibly make sense.
I was wondering the same thing, Larry. You can't tell me that Norway doesn't have fish packing facilities.
This is what happens when Republicans run amok. Anything to make money, and any sort of regulation is tantamount to Communism.
Unfortunately China has become "the world's seafood processing plant". For example, it costs about $1/lb for US labor to remove the bones in salmon and costs 20 cents in China. There is even a You Tube video showing fish in New Zealand being processed in China and consumers are not aware of this because they do not have note China on the packaging. I've noted the article below even though it is from 2005 because it just shows how long this practice has been going on:
http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2002384544_uschinafish16.html
This has happened to me a few times. I eat fish a lot and I know what different types of fish taste like and their various textures. I complained when a restaurant served me tilapia instead of sea bass and wanted to charge $25, and they insisted it was sea bass. I got very upset that they were unwilling to either price the fish at the right price of tilapia, or take the tilapia back and give me real sea bass.
I gave them a bad Yelp review since that seemed to be my only option (so much for the customer always being right), and then I saw Yelp reviews mentioning that several other people were conned in the same way that I was. This practice is definitely real, folks. Now I eat at fish markets where you see the freshly caught fish behind the glass and you pick the one you want so you KNOW what you're eating and how fresh it is, rather than these phony upscale gourmet places that give you several days-old fish and want to price gouge you.
Going to a cut-rate charley fish house or restaurant you don't know well, ask for catfish. If they substitute talapia you come out even. If they substitute anything else, you're going up scale. All you have to do is realise they are out to get you. so stay away from the pricey stuff or they'll know they hooked a big one. If you go to a restaurant you know well and good is up and up, then enjoy yourself.
@Hot-in-Miami, I suggest that you contact your state's Attorney General.
Order shrimp, see if they can stuff Tilapia into shells to substitute for that.
Try to avoid shrimp from Thailand, as they add antibiotics to it.
Or Vietnamese shrimp that they grow in sewage and street runoff. I've about given up on shrimp unless it says it's from Louiseana(sp) or positivly says is wild caught in the US. Farm raised shrimp are so bland and flavorless where ever it comes from. The only thing I'm sure is what it is is King Crab. Most of my seafood that I buy is King Crab and will be until I move to Brookings, Oregon where I can catch my own seafood.
That's why this article's claim that fish caught in the north sea is shipped to China for packaging. I'd pay a premium for north sea fish but would be reluctant to buy any from China or Thailand.
geebus,
Farm raised tiger shrimp have a lot of flavor and are consistent. Wild shrimp are inconsistent and vary seasonally on flavor. If you go to a reputable fish house make sure the flat fish product is fresh not frozen. Ask for a tour of the kitchen, and get to know the management and the Chef. But, be prepared to pay for good seafood though. It's very expensive these days and these prices are here to stay. If you're on the cheap, stick with the shrimp or tilapia. Fresh tilapia is an outstanding product and is entirely farm raised. In fact 2/3 of all fish on the market today are now farm raised.
the restaurants and markets other then the fresh markets don't have much more going for them then the rest of the consumers, after its filleted and skinned you have to take their word. most people wouldn't know the difference.
Many reports in the last few years that only about 5% of salmon sold is wild as the fish stocks are depleted, rivers obstructed and polluted etc. 95% of solmon is farm raised. Yet all the poeple I know swear they only eat wild salmon. What a funny crowd.
So, they are all up in arms arresting people over having some horse in the beef, but this is a normal and somehow acceptable because everyone does it? Somehow I think this a very strange double standard.
This is nothing new. For example, the "fish" in fish sticks is not actually fish, but krill. Sadly, this has been happening for years, and nobody seems to care.
I love how "the holier than thou" people that eat raw fish and proclaim how good they are by "eating healthy" whine when they find out their eating crap.
It is pathetic that you are this stupid. The world has many more important things to work on than the "goodie goodie folks" and their "raw and healthy" fish.
Your feelings of inferiority are showing.
Bill from Oregon - ever hear the cliche that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones? It's rather ironic that you are calling people stupid when you have no clue as to the correct use of "there, their and they're" as in your statement, "when they find out their eating crap".
@Bill from Oregon, you should hear them whine when they are passing that 3 foot long tapeworm. they tend to cuss as they whine, not a pretty picture when they are talking to Ralph after eating some poorly made rice cakes made with some unidentified white fish. why do they always refer to the porcelain god as Ralph. to each their own, as for me I'm a skeptic, if I don't know where it came from and how it was prepared I don't eat it. especially if it came from China or Indonesia.
Check out the article "Filet of Filth" in the latest Mother Jones. Bet you didn't know that fish you were eating is tilapia raised on pig manure in China. This article will cure you from going to that Korean-owned sushi restaurant.
Hey Bill from Oregon, what is that bug up your butt? Are you selling fake fish?
As a professional Chef who has been lucky enough to work in the top restraurants in the country where the Executive Chefs would never think of doing this because of their respect for food and where it comes from, I think those that do try to fool the public should be fined heavily and a notice put on their window for all to see, as they do with the grading system in NYC. I am so sick of people trying to make a buck for themselves by deceitful methods.
we need better food regulations. FDA, it is time to do your jobs better! You are playing with the lives of Americans, do your job and enforce food regulations, stop these companies form giving us just any crap they get.
Right, the FDA will get around to regulating fish right after they do more important things, like make vitamin C prescription only.
Does this mean you will not complain about the tax dollars required to fund the agency? That's a huge issue. It's pretty difficult to ensure the safety and integrity of the food supply with there are not enough inspectors and they are hampered from doing their jobs by being underfunded.
The funny thing is, the republicans want to cut cut cut this kind of agency. The free market will regulate itself... lol yeah right.
It's not that we need more regulation but more honest restaurant owners.People need to educate themselves on fish so that they know whether or not they are getting what they pay for.
You act like the agencies are actually doing their jobs, its past time to cut agencies and government spending and make the dead weight government employees do the work they were hired to do or get the ax, clean house of overhead and non performing sponges, the market is capable of performing the necessary task, but why should they when the government is supposedly on top of it all what a waste of money and you want more of it? I say cut the government out they can't handle the job, they already proved that. its like asking the post office to run the military. its time people realize that uncle Sam is not doing his job and we should shrink the dead weight to the point where they can function. big government is dysfunctional, and expensive.
Boycott imported seafood. Buy only wild caught seafood from US or Canadian fishermen. Support your local fishermen.
I ordered lobster this one time and was served crayfish. I figured it out right away though.
The problems is no one wants to pay for more food inspections. It costs money and everyone is more concerned about saving money than protecting the consumer. Hey, but I am sure those places will "regulate" themselves and tell you the truth about what they are selling you, right? It's free enterprise after all! Our need for cheap food will just cost is more in the end. I try to eat more at home and as vegetarian as I can. On the other hand, out parents might have had less access to all these healthy foods and they are still around.
The FDA needs to be funded much much more. They cannot do anything. They can't even find the cause of poisonings from American grown veggies let alone track imported food. It's going to be a big problem some day. Look what is happening in Europe with the horse meat. People are not honest, and that needs to be the default assumption when dealing with food. I've actually heard that a lot of that tilapia is farmed in terrible conditions and is basically posioned, but no one checks it as it comes into our country. Politicians have us all worried about "terrorists", when we should be worried about the common criminal who sells food that will make us sick.
Luke, I agree with you whole-heartedly. I am post #1 but you summed it up very well!
No they are funded enough why don't we just make them do the jobs they were hired to do and maybe stop the corruption, throw a couple of them in jail for accepting the bribes that they take to look the other way. we spend to much money on worthless government dead weight as is and you want to give them more? well not without some results. all these people do is wait around for a paycheck. and I don't think they care who it comes from.
Put your sushi in your tushie give me another piece of halava
With the FDA, you get what you pay for. Pay for it and stop thinking of "regulation" as "communism," and maybe someday with fish, we'll get what we pay for.
However, I must say, anybody who can't tell the difference between wild, line-caught salmon and pond-raised salmon should stick to hamburger and fries.
Buy the fish where you see it on ice then take it home and cook. Eating out is a racket
This can be very dangerous for those of us that are allergic to seafood. There are a few types of fish I can eat and only these types. If they substitute Farm Raised Salmon with Pacific Salmon, I can have a deadly reaction. Guess I'll be eating even less fish now.
If your life depends on the honesty of people, I fear for you.
Karen - if you are so sensitive to salmon that your body can tell the difference between Farm Raised Salmon and Pacific Salmon, then why would you take the chance and eat any kind of seafood in restaurants? It seems like you would know better.
ABC, the 5 species of Pacific salmon I am familiar with from Alaska can't be farmed. Unlike Atlantic salmon, they die after they spawn. Atlantic salmon spawn more than once in thier lifetime. I have heard of companies putting food dye in the Atlantic salmon before packaging to make it look like any of the species of Pacifics (each has a different coloring to the flesh) so they can sell it for more. I think those are usually called Pacific Salmon instead of the exact species Chinook (King), Coho (Silver), Chum (Dog), Pink (Humoies), and Sockey (Red).
Groundfishing in New England faces a bleak present and an uncertain future
Be careful with your Codfish. Never eat the Chinese crap. Of anything.
Chinese food is about sauces.You want fish flavor,eat sushi.If you are stupid enough to think you will get a 6 ounce serving of a fish that cost $16 lb for $5 dollars,you are the fool!
mas098 - notsojingo isn't referring to food from Chinese restaurants, Einstein. He/she is referring to any foodstuff imported from China. I have a friend who is half Chinese. She advises everyone not to buy food imported from China.
Ordered a spicy salmon roll from my local sushi restaurant. I got spicy shrimp. Notified the restaurant and they re-sent a new order. Next week, same order, same result. Now I no longer order from them. It is easy to 'substitute' spicy shrimp for spicy salmon because the house dressing they mix it with makes it look similar. Easy way to trick consumers to save money. Pay close attention the next time you order spicy salmon.
I have no problem with the fish that I eat. I go up into the Western mountains and catch wild trout from fresh water creeks. I only keep the Rainbow trout. All others I throw back. I never fish the rivers, lakes , or reservoirs. they are all polluted by Republican owned businesses. Don't argue with me, I have followed this through many times.
I guess the Democrat owned businesses have byproducts of rainbows and sunshine then?...
Just Me,
I live in those same Western mountains. I stick with Republican fish. I find the Democratic fish to be boney and I usually choke on them. I try and give it to the cats but they won't eat it either....LMAO because you're an idiot.
Tilapia for the most part are farm raised fresh water fish. Only a very stupid resteraunt owner or very unsophisticated eater would believe a fresh water fish tastes anything like a ocean caught fish. The only fresh water fish I eat is trout, mostly ones I catch myself. Fish like cod, on the other hand, cover many species. There's absolutly no relation between an Atlantic Cod and a Pacific Ling Cod...but they're both cod?
The problem here does not require additional government oversight, or more laws. the problem here is DISHONESTY and doing whatever, low, scurrilous, scandalous thing it takes in service to the almighty dollar. Bottom line: Americans are addicted to CHEAP, where even companies like Apple farm out the manufacturing of their products to China and we buy them anyway. No wonder we don't have jobs! In 1965, 19 out of 20 products for sale in American stores were made in this country - today it's the reverse. Many major suppliers of frozen vegetables get them from China, grown using banned pesticides and human & animal feces for fertilizer. Why should your fish be any different? Wake up, America; you reap what you sow and YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.
I eat a lot of sushi and know my fish.I've caught,cleaned and cooked fish my entire life.The one thing I will never allow at a sushi are is to take a cut from a piece of fish that is not a substantial representation of that species.I have a good friend who own one of the best sushi bars in the LA region and have gone more than once with him to the downtown fish market at 5 am in the morning.You are right,there is a lot of trash being sold and consumed but not in legitimate,quality sushi bars.You get what you pay for.Buy $40 sushi ,get bunk!
For years I thought yellowtail was a tattooed ass!