The Secret in Your Sushi

(Photo Credit: Oceana/Jenn Hueting) Dining out or shopping in a grocery store are seemingly straightforward: as the consumer, you make your selection and exchange money for goods. These interactions are based on an implicit trust that you get what you paid for. However, in recent years consumers have begun to demand more transparency with reports of mislabeled seafood at retailers and restaurants being greater than 70% in some instances [1]. Seafood is one of the most traded food items in the world, with approximately 4.5 billion people consuming fish as at least 15% of their source of animal protein [2]. The U.S. is the second largest consumer of seafood in the world behind China and with the recent health recommendations from the American Heart Association elucidating the benefits of fish consumption, sales of this commodity have reached an all-time high [3]. Increased awareness of the environmental burdens of the meat industry have further contributed to this move towards more seafood proteins [4]. The opportunities for seafood mislabeling have consequently increased. A recent study performed by the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA sampled from 26 sushi restaurants in Los Angeles from 2012-2015. Led by Demian A, Willette and Sara E. Simmonds, this study found that a whopping 47% of samples were mislabeled. Similarly, From 2010-2012, Oceana, the world’s largest international ocean conservation organization, conducted a study investigating the prevalence of seafood fraud on a nationwide level. They collected 1,200 samples from 674 restaurants and markets in 21 different states and found that 33% of the samples were mislabeled. Figure 1 depicts a map generated from this study and the respective amount of mislabeling for each state sampled [3]. The types of substitution vary, often substituting cheaper fish such as tilapia for more expensive fish such as grouper, cod, and snapper [3]. Among the different types of fish sampled in UCLA’s four-year study, it was found that all sushi fish types, except Bluefin, tuna were mislabeled at least once. Halibut and red snapper samples were mislabeled 100% of the time [1].