Consumers
deserve to know their seafood is safe, legally caught, and honestly labeled
In
a follow-up to its February report finding one-third of the seafood tested in
the United States is mislabeled according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) the new report from Oceana says that seafood fraud is practiced on
consumers when less-expensive and less-desirable species are passed off as
high-quality fish.
“If a consumer eats mislabeled fish even just once a week, they could be losing up to hundreds of dollars each year due to seafood fraud.”
According
to the Oceana study, substitution of a lower-cost species such as tilapia for
more-expensive grouper could cost consumers an extra $10 for an eight-ounce
filet in a restaurant, and the common substitution of Atlantic farmed salmon
for wild Chinook salmon adds another $5 to a restaurant bill.
“Consumers deserve to know their seafood is safe, legally caught, and honestly labeled, including information like where, when and how it was taken out of the ocean”.
The
23-page Oceana report on fish fraud says part of the problem is that seafood
follows a complex path “from boat to plate.” Fish often cross ocean basins and
multiple countries before reaching the final point of sale.
Oceana
says that each stop in the supply chain is an opportunity for fraud. “Without
traceability, or requiring information to follow the fish through the supply
chain that is transparent and verifiable, consumers can be subject to fraud at
every step the way,” the group says.
Oceana supports the Safety and Fraud Enforcement for Seafood (SAFE) act that has been pending in Congress since March. The group says it has more than 500,000 members worldwide.
In
total, Americans are eating about $80 billion worth of fish annually.
The
study found seafood labels often provided inaccurate information and that
less-expensive species were often swapped for sought-after fish such as
Atlantic cod, red snapper and wild salmon.
Mislabeling
is common, Oceana says, because of the immediate economic incentive combined
with little enforcement.
Aporte: Gianni Passalacqua
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