According to the report “Cat for Hare: Obvious Deception, Pending Solution,” this means that in four out of ten cases, the consumer receives a product different from the one they paid for.
For example, when tilapia or catfish are sold instead of red snapper, at prices that can triple the product’s real value, the study, released during Lent, points out.
The report is based on genetic analysis of 1,262 samples collected from markets and restaurants in various cities across the country, as part of a monitoring program Oceana has been conducting for seven years on species substitution.
“38% of the fish and seafood analyzed corresponded to a species different from the one declared, almost double the international average of 20%, recognized in the most recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO),” the report states.
The most frequently substituted species are sailfish (100%), marlin (91%), bass (89%), Spanish mackerel (82%), grouper (72%), snapper (69%), parrotfish (68%), rockfish (57%), and red snapper (54%).
Oceana also observed that some of the most frequently substituted species coincide with those most commonly consumed, such as marlin, Spanish mackerel, grouper, and red snapper.
The latter was replaced in more than half of the cases, with up to 16 different species sold under its name, including the lamprey, a deep-sea organism that was sold as red snapper.
Meanwhile, marlin was sometimes substituted with sharks listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Among the consequences of species substitution, Oceana warned that it not only affects consumers’ wallets, but also “harms fishing communities that operate legally and threatens marine biodiversity.” In particular, it pointed out that fishermen face unfair competition from cheaper products—many of them imported—that are sold as higher-value species, while the lack of information about the origin of products can lead consumers to unknowingly purchase endangered species.
The organization attributed this problem to the lack of traceability systems in Mexico, which makes it impossible to know the product’s journey from capture to sale.
“Fish substitution occurs because, from a public policy standpoint, there are no measures that give us complete information about the journey of seafood products from boat to plate,” Esteban García-Peña, Coordinator of Research and Public Policy at Oceana, stated in a press release.
Therefore, the NGO emphasized that implementing traceability would not only help combat fraud, but also open international markets that already require this type of control for the marketing of fish products.
Source: elminnesotadehoy
