Next time you are going to pay extra for King or Copper River, ask your server if it’s really what they say it is. Interesting facts out of this: Big chains of supermarkets passed 100% true to label. So those packages of fresh frozen wild salmon at Costco are what they claim to be. 40% of restaurants surveyed multiple times failed. Some restaurants failed 100% of the time. Sounds like a fraud investigation should be in the works. Kudos to UW Tacoma teachers for a great real world class lesson in a relevant biology use.
7/7 Tacoma News Tribune
JOHN GILLIE; Staff writer
Just because the menu says the fish you’re eating is wild-caught king salmon doesn’t necessarily make it so, even here in the heart of salmon country, a new study from the University of Washington Tacoma shows.
The study, conducted over three years by students in UWT biology classes using DNA detection methodology, shows salmon sold in Puget Sound-area restaurants is mislabeled surprisingly often. Salmon called wild-caught Pacific salmon on the menu was found, in multiple cases, to be less-expensive farm-raised Atlantic salmon. And even when the menu promise of serving wild-caught fish was fulfilled, the species wasn’t always the same as the restaurant advertised. What might be called king salmon, for instance, was in fact the more common coho salmon.
More than 38 percent of restaurant samples tested by students in the UWT’s introductory biology classes were mislabeled, said Erica Cline, assistant professor in the university’s environmental program.
More at
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/07/07/1735663/salmon-often-mislabeled.html
Filed under: Around the Sound |
