How to fight against fish fraud? Being able to accurately identify a fish species is one step. And doing so can be as easy (or complex) as using a DNA mini-barcoding system for processed fish.
Introduction of the mini barcoding study from Nature.com Scientific Reports:
Food fraud from species substitution is an emerging risk given the increasingly global food supply chain and potential food safety issues. Economic food fraud is committed when food is deliberately placed on the market, for financial gain, with the intention of deceiving the consumer. As a result of increased demand and the globalization of the seafood supply, more fish species are being encountered in the market. In fact, the Seafood List from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) contains more than 1,700 acceptable market names that can be used to label seafood in interstate commerce in the U.S. Subsequently, the need for accurately labelled food products and full disclosure of product composition has become more critical… Unfortunately, most consumers are unable to detect cases of mislabeling or fraud given that recognizable external morphological features are typically removed when the fish is processed.
The study took 96 authenticated fish samples that represented 88 different species, from many different forms – canned, tin, pouch, glass jar, and from a tube. All fish species were from the FDA’s The Seafood List. Each 1 gram sample was divided and homogenized. The resulting slurry was used in the identification process.
Using the current standard process of identification (full DNA) there is only a 20.5% success rate while the mini barcode process of identification was found to be much higher.
For more info, the full study is here: A DNA Mini-Barcoding System for Authentication of Processed Fish Products.
Commercial fish products used for DNA mini-barcoding authentication. Image courtesy Nature.com and Scientific Reports.
Source:
Shokralla, S. et al. A DNA Mini-Barcoding System for Authentication of Processed Fish Products. Sci. Rep. 5, 15894; doi: 10.1038/srep15894 (2015).