Seafood fraud has become a growing problem in the US, and companies are introducing fake fish ingredients into foods like crab, lobster and salmon.
International seafood companies are committing massive fraud by introducing cheap substitutes into seafood instead of serving suppliers and consumers the real deal.
“Seafood fraud is perhaps one of the most fraudulent items that consumers routinely come into contact with,” said Max Valentine, Oceana Campaign Director. Business Insider.
Things like the cost of seafood and fishing tactics influence fraud, and studies have shown that 84 percent of seafood consumed in the United States is imported.
Despite the rise in seafood scams, there are still ways for consumers, chefs and other experts to tell when some of it is real.
International fishing companies are introducing cheap substitutes into their seafood instead of offering authentic products.
Things like the cost of seafood and fishing tactics influence fraud, and studies have shown that 84 percent of seafood consumed in the U.S. is imported.
Seafood fraud caught the attention of the non-profit organization Oceana years ago and they carried out one of their larger investigations in practice from 2010 to 2012.
Oceana collected more than 1,200 seafood samples from 674 retail locations in 21 states.
According to US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines, 33 percent of the samples were determined to be mislabeled.
Oceana also concluded an agreement on seafood products in 2012 fraud report that 56 of the 142 samples they took from 81 retail outlets in New York were mislabeled and that more than half of the locations in the state sold mislabeled fish.
Seafood mislabeling refers to people or companies selling one species of fish, crustacean, or shellfish as another species.
An example of this fraud, according to Business Insider, was if a restaurant took a $3 tilapia and passed it off as a $17 red snapper.
Recent studies via Oceana now show that seafood can be mislabeled 25 to 75 percent of the time for fish like snapper, wild salmon, and Atlantic cod.
“They are ripping off consumers,” said Oceana Vice President Beth Lowell cnn in 2019.
‘We’ve been testing seafood for nine years and every time we do a study we think, ‘maybe we don’t see a problem anymore,’ but we keep finding it and we know it’s having an impact on our oceans.’
Oceana concluded in a 2012 seafood fraud report that 56 of 142 samples they took from 81 retail outlets in New York were mislabeled.
Valentine, who is also an expert on seafood fraud, spoke about the declining fish population in places like the Chesapeake Bay, a body of water where fishermen can catch Maryland blue crabs.
“Population levels have been declining due to environmental issues with water quality, especially in the Chesapeake Bay,” Valentine said.
He added that Maryland blue crabs now sell for “astronomical prices” and there is only a limited supply.
This was likely one of the reasons why 40 percent of Maryland Blue crab cakes in Washington DC and Maryland were mislabeled in 2015.
“It would turn out to be a Southeast Asian swimming crab and it’s incredibly cheaper,” Valentine told Business Insider.
The tuna industry has also been a cause of concern, one of the reasons being the common error in labeling bluefin tuna.
“The tuna fishery is especially difficult to manage because tuna is migratory in nature and, as a result, tuna vessels typically fish in multiple jurisdictions,” Peter Hammartstedt, Sea Shepherd’s director of campaigns, told Business Insider.
Another problem is “fake tuna,” which Business Insider says includes people trying to sell Escolar, a cheap fish that can contain high levels of mercury.
“If you can succeed in that fraud, the benefits will be enormous,” Valentine said.
Maryland blue crabs sell for “astronomical prices” and 40 percent of Maryland blue crab cakes in Washington DC and Maryland were mislabeled in 2015.
The tuna industry has been a cause of concern, one of the reasons is the common error in labeling bluefin tuna.
In addition to retail outlets, suppliers and restaurant chains have tarnished their reputations in the past due to their fraudulent seafood decisions.
Authorities arrested a Virginia seafood supplier for labeling 400,000 pounds of imported crab as a U.S. product.
michael casey Casey’s Seafood pleaded guilty to falsely labeling crab meat in 2019 and revealed that it was aware of the fraudulent activity as early as 2010.
The imported crab meat came from Indonesia, China, Thailand, Vietnam and Central and South America.
Casey was sentenced to nearly four years in prison that same year, and Casey’s Seafood, Inc is now permanently closed.
Restaurant chain Frankie & Benny’s also found itself in trouble in 2014 after its superiors admitted to using only 45 percent king crab in its crab bruschetta, with the rest being reconstituted fish paste.
The restaurant chain is still in business, but eliminated crab bruschetta and received the lowest rating in its seafood sustainability assessment in 2015.
Fortunately, there are ways to tell the difference between real and fake seafood.
Restaurant chain Frankie & Benny’s will use only 45 percent king crab in its crab bruschetta and the rest will be reconstituted fish paste in 2014.
Business Insider gave Valentine a can of lump crab so he could explain some ways to determine which fish is real or fake.
“What’s really great is that the company has included a lot of information on the back of the package,” Valentine said.
The container indicated that the lump crab was “wild-caught” and that it was a “blue swimmer crab” from Indonesia.
Any can or container of crab that does not include this concise information is a red flag, and that is when it is best for consumers to purchase a “whole, live” Maryland blue crab from April through December.
Valentine also advised consumers to remember that if a package in a supermarket says “red crab,” it’s probably fraudulent.
According to Max Valentine, farm-raised salmon fillets tend to be a lighter pink color compared to wild-caught ones.
New York chef Preston Clark advised consumers to love lobster and make sure they buy it live and cut it themselves.
The seafood fraud expert also explained how to tell the difference between real and fake salmon: wild and farm-raised salmon.
“Farm-raised salmon fillets tend to be a little bit lighter pink in color instead of that deep, vibrant red,” Valentine said.
“Your farm-raised salmon fillets will have more marbling…they’ll be a little meatier, bigger and thicker because they won’t have to work as hard to survive in the ocean as they do to survive in pens.”
Other ways to make sure people buy real seafood is to buy it whole, fresh, and cut it themselves.
New York chef Preston Clark advised consumers to love lobster and be sure to buy it live.