The New York Attorney General’s office may take enforcement action against some supermarket chains after it found “rampant” seafood mislabeling at grocers across the state, according to a recent report.
The report, from New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood, found that around a quarter of the seafood sampled at New York grocery retailers was mislabeled. These findings are the result of the first major U.S. government investigation of seafood fraud at supermarket chains.
The incidence of mislabeling popular species was “rampant” among New York retailers, the Underwood's office said in statement. For example, 27.6 percent of species sold as “wild” salmon were mislabeled, oftentimes being substituted for farmed salmon.
A significant 67 percent of red snapper samples were mislabeled, the report found. Approximately 87.5 percent of lemon sole was also discovered to be mislabeled.
“The substitutes were often cheaper, less desirable, and less environmentally sustainable species," the AG office statement said. "This includes farm-raised salmon sold as wild salmon, lane snapper sold as red snapper, and swai sold as lemon sole."
Ray Hilborn, a professor of marine science at the University of Washington and a member of the International Fisheries Innovation Network steering committee, said the report showed the mislabeling was at times intentional and at times accidental.
“It would certainly seem that for salmon, [mislabeing] is intentional,"Hilborn told SeafoodSource. "For snapper and grouper, it would depend on whether another species of snapper and grouper were substituted. However, if it is farmed catfish or tilapia that is being substituted, that is almost certainly intentional."
However, similar to past Oceana studies, “a scientist would need to know what was tested to really be able to say how big a problem it is overall,” Hilborn said.
The problem seems to be with a few specific species, and “not a general problem throughout the fish marketplace,” Hilborn added.
“Of the species tested, only salmon is widely consumed,” he said.
Another university researcher, Demian Willette, who serves as assistant professor of biology at Loyola Marymount University and who is part of a collaborative project to reduce seafood fraud in Los Angeles, believes that a majority of seafood vendors have the “best intentions.”
“The majority of mislabeling cases are accidental, a consequence of the highly complex seafood sourcing supply chain,” Willette told SeafoodSource.
“There may be 'bad actors' out there gaming the system, but in my experiences, vendors are labeling their products according to the available information they receive and in accordance with sometimes conflicting local, state and federal labeling guidelines,” Willette said. “The example of six different species of seriola that all can only legally called 'amberjack' comes to mind.”
The report makes it clear that seafood fraud “isn’t just a fluke; it’s rampant across New York,” Underwood said in the statement.
“Supermarkets are the last line of defense before a phony fish ends up as family dinner, and they have a duty to do more. Yet our report makes clear that New Yorkers may too often be the victim of mislabeling,” she explained.
A small subset of supermarket brands – Food Bazaar, Foodtown, Stew Leonard’s, Uncle Giuseppe’s, and Western Beef – were responsible for a “vastly disproportionate share of suspected mislabeling,” the AG’s office said.
The AG sent the five retailers letters requesting information on their seafood quality control practices, and said they “could face financial penalties.”
Around two-thirds of the supermarket brands reviewed had at least one instance of suspected mislabeling.
While the mislabeling affected nearly all species tested, it was rampant among certain species. “The results suggest that consumers who buy lemon sole, red snapper, and grouper are more likely to receive an entirely different fish,” the AG’s office said. “Similarly, consumers who bought ‘wild' salmon often got the farm-raised seafood they had paid on average 34 percent more to avoid.”
From late 2017 through 2018, the attorney general’s office purchased seafood (based on availability) at 155 locations across 29 supermarket brands.
Investigators targeted seafood from nine categories, including red snapper, snapper (varieties other than red), grouper, cod, wild salmon (including chum, coho, sockeye, and king), halibut, lemon sole, sole (varieties other than lemon), striped bass, and white tuna. The AG’s office then sent the samples for DNA testing by the Ocean Genome Legacy Center, an academic laboratory at Northeastern University.
There are some limitations to the study, the AG’s office said.
“For example, because seafood selection and availability vary substantially, no two chains had the same variety and number samples collected. The results are therefore illustrative, but not representative,” it said.
The report warns consumers to be on alert for seafood pricing that seems too good to be true, “as it may signal problems,” the AG’s office said. “The report also encourages consumers to demand that their supermarkets provide precise labeling of the seafood they sell and describe their seafood quality and sustainability practices.”
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Per Capita Seafood Consumption Highest Since 2008, with Gains in Shrimp, Salmon, Cod
By John Sackton
Publisher, SeafoodNews
December 13, 2018
NFI has released their annual compilation of the top ten seafoods consumed in the US on the day that NOAA is finally releasing its Fisheries of the United States for 2017.
Overall, Americans ate 16.0 pounds of edible seafood per person in 2017, a big jump from 14.9 pounds in 2016. The percentage gain is 7.4%. NOAA uses a disappearance model, so it does not account for seafood inventory holdings that carry over from year to year.
Chart: John Sackton, Seafood Datasearch
This is the highest per capita number since 2008, when Americans also ate 16 pounds of seafood. At that time, the US population was 304.1 million, vs. 325.7 million in 2017. This represents an increase of 21.6 mllion over the 2008 volume.
The big winners in terms of increased purchases in 2017 were shrimp, salmon, and cod.
Once again, the real growth in consumption came from aquaculture species, which increased 2.6%, while wild caught species declined by 4.7%.
Shrimp consumption was up 3/10ths of a pound, from 4.1 lbs to 4.4 lbs (+7.3%). This is just short of the 4.5 lbs that ourselves and others had predicted.
Salmon consumption was also up from 2.18 to 2.41 lbs, an increase of 10.5%.
Americans are also sticking with cod. Although cod consumption remained flat at 0.66 lbs, cod as a share of whitefish rose 16% to 18%.
Consumption of tilapia, Alaska pollock, and pangasius declined, in some cases significantly. Alaska pollock declined by nearly 19%, from .96 lbs per capita to .78 lbs. The problem for Alaska pollock is even more severe if you compare it with the 2006 and 2007, where consumption was more than double this year’s figures.
It is likely that some of the falloff in Alaska pollock came more from the twice-frozen import side of the business than from the single frozen Alaskan product. However, 2017 was a much more favorable export year for pollock than 2016, and that could have meant a larger portion of pollock going out of the US. According to customs data, 43 million pounds more pollock were exported in 2017 than 2016, which would equate to a change of .13 lbs per capita on pollock.
Consumption of both tilapia and pangasius fell as well. In general, this suggests more availability of cod instead of other whitefish.
Comparing 2017 with the 2008, the last year with 16 lbs. of consumption, there are some striking differences as illustrated in our chart.
Chart: John Sackton, Seafood Datasearch
For example, shrimp consumption is up, salmon consumption is way up, and so is cod consumption. But other species have all declined.
Canned tuna, though unchanged in 2017, is down 25% from 2008. Catfish is down 42%, tilapia is down 9.2%, and crab is down 14.8%, and pollock 41.8%.
What this suggests is that within the top ten list, seafood choices are narrowing, and a greater percentage of all consumption is represented by shrimp and salmon. In 2017, these species represented 42.6% of all seafood purchased in the US, while in 2008 shrimp and salmon represented 37.1%.
However, NFI pointed out that other species, ie halibut, flatfish, scallops, lobster, fresh tuna, rockfish, and haddock for example, made up a larger share of the increase in consumption. Last year the top ten species represented 90% of total consumption. This year it was only 84%. But these gains did not come at the expense of shrimp and salmon, but at the expense of some of the other top ten species.
Seafood remains a popular retail item and menu choice at restaurants. An increasing amount of seafood is being sold through large scale retailers, foodservice distributors, and national chains. That is what is driving the increase in consumption, in my opinion, as these programs latch on to the seafood whose supply is reliable, and where the distribution system can accommodate year over year growth.
John Sackton
SeafoodNews.com
1-781-861-1441
jsackton@seafood.com
Ten Indonesian fishermen have been arrested in Hawaii in connection with smuggling shark fins.
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