Fish You're Eating May Not be What It's Sold As
By: Spencer Williams
Updated: February 22, 2013
From fresh off the boat, all the way to your dinner plate, somewhere along the way seafood is getting mislabeled.
Oceana, an international ocean conservation group, tested fish from 674 retail outlets across the nation and found mislabeling everywhere they looked.
In Pennsylvania 56 percent of the fish was mislabeled.
Southern California was at 52 percent, and in the nation's capitol 26 percent.
"Some of the concerns with the mislabeling have been some of the health impacts," says Ocean's Beth Lowell. "We found high mercury fish swapped out for lower mercury fish."
The study found sushi venues most often mislabeled their fish, followed by other restaurants then grocery stores.
Snapper was the most commonly mislabeled fish.
It was often replaced with something like rockfish.
Mark White runs a fresh seafood market.
He goes to great lengths to insure his fish is properly labeled.
"You can always buy the whole fish, that way you know exactly what you are getting," he advises.
At restaurants it's more difficult.
The fish often ends up cooked or covered in a sauce.
Chef Ann Cashion says reputable places will know where they bought their fish, but ultimately it comes down to trust.
Right now less than one percent of seafood is inspected by the government for fraud.
Oceana wants lawmakers on Capitol Hill to mandate seafood tracking to make sure it's safe, legal and properly labeled.
