Freshwater Catfish (photo by Dawn M. Turner, courtesy of morguefile.com)

American consumers have been getting a lot of reports recommending the consumption of seafood on a regular basis to improve cardiovascular health and protect against dementia. There’s a great variety of fish on the global market these days. Some of it is familiar, but much of it is not so easily recognized by the average shopper.

According to a report in the New York Times, some merchants are wrongly labeling the fish. Doing so can fetch higher prices and sell endangered species to unsuspecting customers. The article noted that discovery of the mislabeling in the shops of New York City was made by some surprisingly sophisticated researchers:

In a tale of teenagers, sushi and science, Kate Stoeckle and Louisa Strauss, who graduated this year from the Trinity School in Manhattan, took on a freelance science project in which they checked 60 samples of seafood using a simplified genetic fingerprinting technique to see whether the fish New Yorkers buy is what they think they are getting.

They found that one-fourth of the fish samples with identifiable DNA were mislabeled. A piece of sushi sold as the luxury treat white tuna turned out to be Mozambique tilapia, a much cheaper fish that is often raised by farming. Roe supposedly from flying fish was actually from smelt. Seven of nine samples that were called red snapper were mislabeled, and they turned out to be anything from Atlantic cod to Acadian redfish, an endangered species.

The incorrect labels strongly suggest deceptive preactices that may well be taking place beyond the confines of New York City. It’s good to know that an efficient method is now available for checking up on those businesses suspected of putting profits before integrity.

If you’d like to read the New York Times article cited above go to: Fish Tale Has DNA Hook: Students Find Bad Labels