SoCal Leads Nation In Seafood Mislabeling - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

Croaker Dave · 03-03-2013, 10:09 AM

This year's Oceania seafood labeling study is out and was particularly damning to Southern California. Although the bulk of it was rockfish being labeled as red snapper, something consumers around here have come to excpect as standard procedure. Still, you should know what you are getting and you might care about sustainability of the slow-growing rockfish. Many other interesting data in the study. For example, I didn't know that 100% of yellowtail/hamachi sold in sushi restaraunts (in the study) is mislabeled farm-raised Japanese amberjack/buri, which the study says is probably not intentional deception. It's not that different and still a seriola, but I don't buy that it's unintentional because nobody is more serious about subtleties in seafood variations than the Japanese seafood chef. They'll even have different names for the same species caught in different seasons or different seas around Japan.

Southern California led the country with the highest rate of seafood mislabeling from grocery stores and
one of the highest from sushi restaurants. Of the 74 different retail outlets visited, 45 of them sold
mislabeled seafood. While grocery stores had the lowest rate of mislabeling (32 percent), consumers
should be disturbed to learn that almost one in three samples from grocery stores were mislabeled. Our
study revealed that 84 percent of the sushi purchased was mislabeled, a shameful statistic for a state with

a sushi roll named after it.

Of the 21 sushi venues visited, only one sold correctly labeled seafood. The other 20 (95 percent) sold at
least one fish that was mislabeled, according to the FDA.
Oceana originally released the results of our Southern California testing in April 2012.

13 Since then, the
Los Angeles County Seafood Task Force14 conducted its own study and found 74 percent of the seafood
facilities investigated sold mislabeled seafood, validating Oceana’s findings.15 The pervasive false and
inaccurate seafood labels were found at all levels of seafood commerce including retail, wholesale and
import levels. The Los Angeles County officials are following up with corrective actions, including

continued inspections, oversight and enforcement.

http://oceana.org/sites/default/file...ults_FINAL.pdf

03-03-2013, 10:09 AM	#1
Croaker Dave Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: OC Posts: 171	SoCal Leads Nation In Seafood Mislabeling This year's Oceania seafood labeling study is out and was particularly damning to Southern California. Although the bulk of it was rockfish being labeled as red snapper, something consumers around here have come to excpect as standard procedure. Still, you should know what you are getting and you might care about sustainability of the slow-growing rockfish. Many other interesting data in the study. For example, I didn't know that 100% of yellowtail/hamachi sold in sushi restaraunts (in the study) is mislabeled farm-raised Japanese amberjack/buri, which the study says is probably not intentional deception. It's not that different and still a seriola, but I don't buy that it's unintentional because nobody is more serious about subtleties in seafood variations than the Japanese seafood chef. They'll even have different names for the same species caught in different seasons or different seas around Japan. Southern California led the country with the highest rate of seafood mislabeling from grocery stores and one of the highest from sushi restaurants. Of the 74 different retail outlets visited, 45 of them sold mislabeled seafood. While grocery stores had the lowest rate of mislabeling (32 percent), consumers should be disturbed to learn that almost one in three samples from grocery stores were mislabeled. Our study revealed that 84 percent of the sushi purchased was mislabeled, a shameful statistic for a state with a sushi roll named after it. Of the 21 sushi venues visited, only one sold correctly labeled seafood. The other 20 (95 percent) sold at least one fish that was mislabeled, according to the FDA. Oceana originally released the results of our Southern California testing in April 2012. 13 Since then, the Los Angeles County Seafood Task Force14 conducted its own study and found 74 percent of the seafood facilities investigated sold mislabeled seafood, validating Oceana’s findings.15 The pervasive false and inaccurate seafood labels were found at all levels of seafood commerce including retail, wholesale and import levels. The Los Angeles County officials are following up with corrective actions, including continued inspections, oversight and enforcement. http://oceana.org/sites/default/file...ults_FINAL.pdf