Turns out, it’s just as much of a mystery. A new study by Oceana checked 119 seafood samples from popular California sushi venues, grocery stores, and restaurants. More than half of the fish—55%—were mislabeled. For example, every claim to “snapper” was fraudulent; at sushi venues, all of the snapper was either tilapia, rockfish, or seabream. And the substitutions were sometimes even dangerous. White tuna, or ono, was replaced 62% of the time with escolar, a snake mackerel banned in Italy and Japan that contains a diarrhea-causing toxin. 12 Fish To Stay Away From If you were hoping to avoid farmed salmon (which has been shown to contain carcinogens) by buying wild, it’s still a gamble. Of the 20 wild salmon purchased, two (both from a grocery store) turned out to have been farmed Atlantic salmon. And get this: Of all the fish we consume in the US, 84% is imported and only two percent is inspected, according to a 2009 government audit. So how can you ensure that the fish beside your pickled ginger isn’t a fraud? If you’re knowledgeable about fish species, look for filets with the skin on, says study author Kimberly Warner, PhD, a senior scientist at Oceana. But if you can’t tell a haddock from a halibut, ask questions. “Try to get comfortable with the person selling your fish,” Warner says, whether it’s a local fishmonger, the seller at your supermarket, or the chef at your favorite sushi spot. The more you ask, the more you’ll learn about your fish and where it was caught.
Being inquisitive could also pave the way to better labeling requirements. “At grocery stores, where we found the lowest level of mislabeling, we have a lot more label requirements on all foods,” Warner says. And that’s no accident: “A lot of the labeling information came as a response to consumers voicing concerns about wanting to know where their food came from.” Also see: The Future In Food Labels, Obesity In America: How We Got So Fat, 7 Foods That Should Never Cross Your Lips
