It could be called "Seagate", the newest scandal that the media is touting. Piscatologists and ichthyologists alike are shivering their timbers over the news of fish fraud that has been discovered in boats, live-wells, fish tanks, freezers, sushi bars, and dinner plates throughout the world.
Yes, the fish-type that your package is labeled or your menu has printed just may not be what you would actually eat. After DNA testing, (Did we even surmise that our fish fillets needed DNA testing?) "Consumer Reports" states that twenty-two percent of the samples were found to be not as advertised. 19 out of 22 restaurants sampled had mis-marketed fish offerings such as Red snapper that was actually ocean perch. Advertised sole was really sushi catfish from Vietnam, which uses drugs in their fillets not yet approved in the U.S., grouper was actually tile fish, which contains more mercury than the FDA recommends, and white tuna was actually escolar. The study goes on to report that only two percent of the fish, in the U.S., is inspected - period - and that less than .001% is inspected for fraud.
This totally shatters my fish-faith. You know that eel that I was planning on serving for Thanksgiving dinner? How can I now be assured that the eel is really eel, and not some slippery imposter, posing as eel when it is really an over-grown, food-color enhanced earth worm?
Something truly is rotten in Denmark......and everywhere else it seems. Capt. SO and I wondered about the odor and now we know. And I thought it was just the halls of Congress.
Sorry about that.
Ancora impostero
