mm!!! BAKE AND SHARK...but is it?

Fake fish- a worldwide headache

We’ve all heard the stories about bake-and-shark vendors here in Trinidad who fry catfish and pass it off as shark! Whether true or not, here is some food for thought: In the US, where food safety and consumer standards are supposedly higher, and up to US$80 billion is spent on cooked and raw seafood each year, Consumers aren’t always buying what they think they are.

In tests conducted by consumerreports.org, an on-line US consumer magazine, more than one-fifth of 190 pieces of seafood bought at retail stores and restaurants in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut and tested were mislabeled as different species of fish, incompletely labeled, or misidentified by employees.

The report, which takes a close-up lok at the problem of fake fish said: “Whether deliberate or not, substitution hurts consumers three ways: in their wallet, when expensive seafood is switched for less desirable, cheaper fish; in their health, when they mistakenly eat species that are high in mercury or other contaminants; and in their conscience, if they find out they’ve mistakenly bought species whose numbers are low.”

It continued: “We sent our fresh and frozen fish samples to an outside lab for DNA testing. Researchers extracted genetic material from each sample and compared the genetic sequences against standardized gene fragments that identify its species in much the same way that criminal investigators use genetic fingerprinting. (See How we tested: Using DNA to solve a mystery.) Some fish were sampled more widely than others. Still, our results provide a snapshot of what a shopper might buy.

Only four of the 14 types of fish we bought—Chilean sea bass, coho salmon, and bluefin and ahi tuna—were always identified correctly.
Eighteen percent of our samples didn’t match the names on labels, or menus. Fish were incorrectly passed off as catfish, grey sole, grouper, halibut, king salmon, lemon sole, red snapper, sockeye salmon, and yellowfin tuna.
Four percent were incompletely labeled or misidentified by employees.
One sample, labeled as grouper, was actually tilefish, which averages three times as much mercury as grouper. The Food and Drug Administration advises women of childbearing age and children to avoid tilefish entirely.
How does it happen? According to the consumerreports.org story, it is often impossible to determine where species substitution and mislabeling occur as “fish pass through many hands from hook to cook.” After harvesters farm or catch seafood, they ice it or flash-freeze it. Sometimes they transfer their catch to larger vessels, where the fish might be mixed with other species. The fish may be processed at sea or shipped to foreign or domestic facilities where it’s prepared for distribution.

Processing at sea, which includes removing heads and guts, slows spoilage but can make species more difficult to identify, as can breading or sauces that seafood-preparation facilities might add.

What you can do

Fish prices range widely, even for the same type of fish, and this is true in the US, Trinidad, or anywhere in the world.  However, suspicious  fish tends to be unusually cheap. In the the consumerreports.org story  what turned out to be real grouper steaks, cost US$6.80 and $9.99 per pound.” The “grouper steaks” that were really pollock and tilefish cost us just $4.99 and $5.60 per pound, respectively.”

The report also offered these buying guidelines: “Before deciding what fish to buy, ask the person behind the counter (or the server in a restaurant) which fish, if any, is in season, and where and how the fish was caught or farmed. Ask for the manager (or chef) if you aren’t satisfied with the answers or want to learn more. Just letting the seller know that customers are interested might raise his or her consciousness about the seafood being sold.”

“Buy from a well-run, clean fish retailer. Make sure that employees working behind the counter are wearing clean clothes, hair coverings, and disposable gloves. In a supermarket, shop for fish last.”

Whatever fish you buy, look for:

Fish that are refrigerated or displayed on a thick bed of fresh ice, without a tag stuck in their flesh.
Fish that smell fresh and mild, not fishy, sour, or ammonialike.
Fillets with no discoloration and no darkening or drying around the edges.
Firm, shiny flesh that’s moist but not mushy and springs back when pressed.
Eyes that are clear and bulge a little; gills that are bright red and free of slime.
Frozen seafood with the package intact—not open, torn, or crushed at the edges—and without frost or ice crystals, which could indicate that the fish has been stored a long time or thawed and refrozen.