25% of fish is mislabeled

[Guest guest]

I found this very interesting since I recently had a LEAP client that was

highly reactive to salmon. After his chronic sinusitis went away on his

elimination diet, he purchased some fish that was labeled " trout. "

He very quickly suffered from a VERY bad reoccurrence of his sinusitis and

contacted the grocery store. The store confirmed that they'd mislabled the fish

and it actually was salmon. Sadly, the guy had no idea what trout looked

like and that it generally does not look and taste exactly like salmon.

Now, even though the two are in the same food family, most trout is quite

different from salmon, though I have seen fish labeled as " salmon trout. " Go

figure. . .

Jan Patenaude, RD

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Fishy business

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Globe and Mail Update

August 21, 2008 at 5:03 PM EDT

Before you bite into that fish and chips or spend $30 on halibut at the

supermarket, you may want to take a second look: 25 per cent of fish is

mislabeled, according to a University of Guelph study published today that used

DNA

analysis to determine the true identity of fish sold in Toronto and New York.

One sample sold as tuna turned out to be tilapia; halibut was really hake;

and red snapper was, on different occasions, lavender jobfish, Labrador

redfish, perch and cod.

" There's not a lot of regulation around fin fish; it's basically been

ignored, " says study co-author Hanner, associate director for the

Canadian

Barcode of Life Network and an assistant professor of biology at the

University of Guelph.

" Now that we have the tool to do it, we probably have an obligation to start

testing. "

He and co-author Eugene Wong tested 96 samples of fish from grocery stores,

markets and restaurants in New York and Toronto. They analyzed the DNA of each

fish and compared it with a global database of species. They intended simply

to test the database, which performed well, identifying each piece of fish

they found. Discovering so much fish fraud was a surprise.

That's where we started to think, 'We've got to publish this,' " Dr. Hanner

says.

Some of the mislabelling could be blamed on nomenclature confusion.

Scientists have Latin names for every species, while fishermen use their own

common

names, and those may vary from one country to another.

But some of the " substitutions " are definitely, well, fishy. The person who

was served tilapia instead of tuna got hosed, as tilapia is less than half the

price of tuna.

The example that really annoyed Dr. Hanner was a fish sold as Alaskan halibut

that was actually Atlantic halibut. Though the two species are closely

related, DNA analysis can tell them apart — and for those concerned about

eating

ethically, there's a big difference. Atlantic halibut stock has collapsed and

the species is considered at risk; Pacific halibut is considered the more

eco-friendly choice.

Dr. Hanner was dismayed to learn that efforts to eat responsibly may be

foiled by fish-swappers.

" We're not really sure where mislabelling is occurring, " he says, adding that

he thinks it's usually not the fishermen or the fishmongers themselves. " My

guess is it's happening somewhere in the processing and distribution supply

chain. "

The commercial fishing industry, or at least its reputable representatives,

have welcomed DNA-testing technology aimed at ferreting out false marketing.

The Virginia-based National Fisheries Institute last summer established a

group called the Better Seafood Bureau to try to police fish markets, and

established a hotline people can call to complain if they think they were

victims of

a bait-and-switch. (The number is 1-.)

" Trying to pass one fish off as another is often called species substitution,

but I have another name for it — fraud, " said NFI president Connelly.

Perhaps one day, Dr. Hanner says, fish will come with their own equivalent of

the VQA label found on Ontario wine, guaranteeing their provenance. His

ultimate dream is to put the power of false-fish detection into the hands of

the

public, with portable DNA scanners that could tell you what the catch of the

day really is.

That technology may be a few years away, he says, but 10 years ago who would

have thought that cellphones would come equipped with cameras and GPS

devices?

" The cost of doing this is coming down, " he says. " What we need to do is to

get it out of university research labs and into the hands of border inspectors

and end consumers. "

Sniffing out phony fish If the store smells, there's a good chance its

labelling practices will be fishy, too.

That's the best guiding principle when shopping for seafood, says

, executive chef of C Restaurant in Vancouver.

" Fish should have no odour; it should never be wrapped in Saran wrap, " says

Mr. , whose high-end establishment is renowned for its

sustainable-seafood menu. " All those things are a good indication that they're

paying attention

to detail. " He says the most obvious case of " outright lying " in recent

years has been the pawning off of farmed Atlantic salmon as wild. How to tell?

Examine the V-shaped pattern of white fat in the flesh. If the white deposits

are thick and conspicuous, the fish is likely farmed. Most wild species, such

as sockeye and coho, have deep red flesh. One exception is chinook, or

spring, salmon, whose flesh can appear farmed depending on the size of the

fish.

Another big issue for consumers is the fraudulent labelling of product as

fresh when it is in fact frozen. Mr. says one of the biggest deceptions in

recent years in British Columbia has been " jet fresh " Chilean sea bass. " Not

one ounce of Chilean sea bass imported into this country is fresh, " he says.

Beppi Crosariol

Jan Patenaude, RD, CLT

Consultant, Writer, Speaker

Director of Medical Nutrition

Signet Diagnostic Corporation

(Mountain Time)

Fax:

DineRight4@...

Mediator Release Testing and LEAP Diet Protocol for Irritable Bowel

Syndrome, Migraine, Fibromyalgia and more, caused by food sensitivity

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