Is the (insert type of fish here) you had at lunch really that type of fish?

So the fish you picked at lunch for your fish n’ chips is really Nile Perch right?

A recent study by Oceana shows that seafood fraud is happening in all continents – except Antarctica.

So is that Barramundi actually Barramundi or something else?

The study showed that worldwide,as an average one piece in five pieces of seafood is mislabelled.

So is that Nile Perch or Shark or Barramundi or something else entirely?

Oceana is a conservation group based in the USA and tested 25000 pieces of seafood across the worldwide from all continents. It was found that seafood fraud is a “serious global problem that undermines honest business and fisherman that play by the rules.”

The study not only looked at mislabelling but also; hiding the country of origin of a product and adding breading, water or glazing to seafood just to increase its weight.

The study found;

•Studies reviewed found seafood mislabelling at every sector of the seafood supply chain; retail, wholesale, distribution, import/export, packaging and processing

•Asian catfish, hake and escolar were the three types of fish most commonly substituted

•Farmed Asian catfish was found being sold as 18 different types of higher-value fish

•More than half of the samples substituted for other seafood posed a species-specific health risk to consumers

•98 per cent of the 69 bluefin tuna dishes tested in Brussels restaurants were mislabelled

•In Brazil, 55 per cent of shark samples turned out to be largetooth sawfish

So is the Mud Crab actually Mud Crab? There is a very good chance that it is, and that the retailer is honest, but there is a serious problem out there.