Red Snapper: The King of Seafood Fraud
You might think you’re getting a premium catch when you order red snapper, but chances are you’re being “catfished” by restaurants and markets. In fact, only seven of the 120 samples of red snapper purchased nationwide were actually red snapper. The other 113 samples were another fish. What makes this particularly shocking is that sushi restaurants mislabeled samples 100% of the time in some studies.
45 percent of red snapper samples were actually tilapia or grouper, leaving diners paying premium prices for cheap farm-raised alternatives. It’s so vulnerable to mislabeling because it’s a white-fleshed fish, making it hard to differentiate from other white fish once it’s fileted. Common substitutes for it include ocean perch, rockfish, madai, tilapia, and white bass.
White Tuna: The Dangerous Deception
Here’s where seafood fraud becomes downright dangerous for your health. When you see “white tuna” on a sushi menu, you’re probably not getting albacore tuna at all. Most of the tuna tested in Oceana’s study were labeled as “white tuna” – but 94 percent of these samples were mislabeled. White tuna was frequently substituted for escolar, which can cause severe health reactions in some people.
Escolar has earned the grim nickname “the laxative of the sea” because escolar contains a substance called gempylotoxin, which according to the FDA can cause gastrointestinal upset after consuming more than a few ounces. That romantic sushi dinner could turn into a very unromantic evening if you unknowingly consume this fish substitute.
Sea Bass: Half the Time, It’s Not What You Think
Sea bass commands high prices at upscale restaurants, making it a prime target for seafood fraud. The statistics are staggering – Sea bass was mislabeled 55% of the time according to recent studies. Even more concerning, 55% of seabass samples were switched out for perch or tilapia. Between each of those fish, the price difference can be up to $30 per pound.
Often, instead of sea bass, they’d get giant perch or Nile tilapia, fish that should be less expensive and is considered lower quality. The next time you’re at a fancy restaurant splurging on sea bass, remember that you might be paying gourmet prices for grocery store fish.
Salmon: Wild or Farmed? You Might Never Know
Salmon fraud typically involves selling farmed Atlantic salmon as wild-caught, premium varieties. While seven percent of all salmon samples in the Oceana study were mislabeled, closer to 20 percent of restaurants and sushi venues mislabeled salmon. Atlantic farmed salmon stood in for as wild-caught salmon – a practice that cheats consumers and carries potential health consequences.
The deception gets even more specific with seasonal varieties. “Copper River salmon is really popular at the beginning of the season. That is something that is often mislabeled. At the beginning of the season it would cost, you know, $45 a pound or more. And if you just get regular sockeye salmon, hardly anybody knows.” That’s a difference of potentially hundreds of dollars in what you’re actually getting versus what you’re paying for.
Atlantic Cod: The Overfished Imposter
Cod might seem like a simple, straightforward fish, but it’s anything but simple when it comes to accurate labeling. The Oceana study found that a variety of fish were sold as cod, including pangasius (Asian “catfish”), threadfin slickhead, and tilapia. Atlantic cod, which has been grossly overharvested and is on most endangered seafood lists, is also sometimes sold as Pacific cod, a less endangered variety.
The substitution here isn’t just about money – it’s about conservation too. When endangered Atlantic cod is mislabeled as more sustainable Pacific cod, it undermines conservation efforts and misleads environmentally conscious consumers who are trying to make responsible choices.
Grouper: The Restaurant Favorite Gone Wrong
Grouper holds a special place in American dining, particularly in Southern cuisine, but it’s also one of the most frequently mislabeled fish. Red snapper and grouper are high value and among the most commonly mislabeled fish, with price differences of up to 244% between the genuine and fraudulent fish – that’s more than double what you should be paying.
The fraud with grouper can be particularly egregious. Some sellers take advantage of this and substitute a low-valued species for a more expensive one (for example, marketing catfish as grouper). In one notorious case, restaurants paid only $2.50 per pound for the catfish, whereas domestic grouper cost $11 to $12 per pound – yet charged customers the premium grouper price.
Halibut: Pacific vs Atlantic Confusion
Halibut fraud often involves species switching that most consumers would never detect. About one-fifth of halibut samples were mislabeled, most frequently in sushi venues. Federal guidelines say that both Atlantic and Pacific halibut can fall under the name halibut, though Atlantic halibut is listed under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as endangered.
more than 30 per cent of cod, halibut, tuna and sole samples were mislabelled. Most often the fish turned out to be escolar, tilapia or Japanese amberjack. The environmental implications here are serious – you might think you’re making a sustainable choice when you’re actually contributing to overfishing of endangered species.
Asian Catfish: The Ultimate Shape-Shifter
If there’s one fish that deserves an Oscar for its acting abilities, it’s Asian catfish. This cheap, farm-raised fish has been found masquerading as numerous premium species. Asian catfish was found to be the type of fish most often sold as a different, higher value type of fish, the report shows. Warner and her coauthors found in their review that Asian catfish was sold as 18 different types of fish.
The versatility of Asian catfish in fraud schemes is remarkable – it’s been sold as everything from grouper to sole to various types of snapper. Its mild flavor and white flesh make it the perfect imposter, allowing unscrupulous vendors to charge premium prices while serving one of the cheapest fish available.
Snapper (General): The Umbrella Term Trap
While red snapper gets most of the attention, snapper as a general category is problematic across the board. Of the most commonly collected fish types, samples sold as snapper and tuna had the highest mislabeling rates (87 and 59 percent, respectively), with the majority of the samples identified by DNA analysis as something other than what was found on the label.
The broad term “snapper” allows for particularly creative mislabeling. Oceana’s 2013 study also found that actual red snapper was substituted with 28 different species, most of which weren’t even in the snapper family. When a single fish name can be substituted with nearly 30 different species, you know the system has serious problems.
Sole: The Fine Dining Fraud
Dover sole and other sole varieties command high prices in fine dining establishments, making them attractive targets for fraudsters. The problem is particularly acute because more than 30 per cent of cod, halibut, tuna and sole samples were mislabelled in recent Canadian studies, and the situation in the US appears similar.
Dover sole they tested was actually walleye. The substitution of expensive Dover sole with much cheaper walleye represents the kind of blatant fraud that shows how widespread and brazen these deceptive practices have become. When you’re paying Dover sole prices at an upscale restaurant, you deserve the real thing, not a freshwater fish that costs a fraction of the price.
