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Tests Reveal Mislabeling of Fish

May 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Yellowtail stands in for mahi-mahi. Nile perch is labeled as shark, and tilapia may be the Meryl Streep of seafood, capable of playing almost any role.

Recent studies by researchers in North America and Europe harnessing the new techniques have consistently found that 20 to 25 percent of the seafood products they check are fraudulently identified, fish geneticists say.

Labeling regulation means little if the “grouper” is really catfish or if gulf shrimp were spawned on a farm in Thailand.

Environmentalists, scientists and foodies are complaining that regulators are lax in policing seafood, and have been slow to adopt the latest scientific tools even though they are now readily available and easy to use.

“Customers buying fish have a right to know what the heck it is and where it’s from, but agencies like the F.D.A. are not taking this as seriously as they should,” said Michael Hirshfield, chief scientist of the nonprofit group Oceana, referring to the Food and Drug Administration.

On Wednesday, Oceana released a new report titled “Bait and Switch: How Seafood Fraud Hurts Our Oceans, Our Wallets and Our Health.” With rates of fraud in some species found to run as high as 70 percent, the report concluded, the United States needs to “increase the frequency and scope” of its inspections.

DNA bar coding, as it is called, looks at gene sequences in the fish’s flesh. “The genetics have been revolutionary,” said Stefano Mariani, a marine researcher at University College Dublin, who has published research on the topic. “The DNA bar coding technique is now routine, like processing blood or urine. And we should be doing frequent, random spot checks on seafood like we do on athletes.”

Policing the seafood industry has historically been challenging because even the most experienced fishmongers are hard pressed to distinguish certain steaks or fillets without the benefit of scales or fins. And many arrive in supermarkets frozen and topped with an obscuring sauce.

Older laboratory techniques to identify fish meat looked at the mix of proteins in flesh samples, but were unreliable, expensive and cumbersome. Investigators often relied instead on laborious legwork, tracking inconsistent fish names on paperwork as seafood moved across international borders. Eighty-four percent of seafood consumed in the United States is now imported, often passing through a multistep global supply chain.

With the new genetic techniques, the gene sequence found in a fish sample is compared with an electronic reference library like that maintained by the International Barcode of Life Project, which now covers 8,000 varieties of fish compiled by biologists over the last five years. The testing is now relatively cheap: commercial labs charge about $2,000 for analyzing 100 fish samples, for an average of $20 apiece, but the cost is under $1 per sample for labs that own the equipment.

Douglas Karas, a spokesman for the F.D.A., said in an e-mail that the agency had been working with scientists to “validate” DNA testing for several years. It recently purchased gene sequencing equipment for five F.D.A. field laboratories and hoped to use it “on a routine basis” by the end of this year.

This new type of scrutiny could allow hundreds of thousands of samples to be tested each year, rather than the hundreds that are now rigorously analyzed, said Dr. Paul Hebert, scientific director of the Barcode of Life project, based in Guelph, Ontario. In March, the F.D.A. issued an alert to inspectors about mislabeled fish. It had already used bar coding as irrefutable evidence to prosecute sellers or issue warnings involving seafood “misbranding,” Mr. Karas said, much as prosecutors use DNA evidence in sex crime cases.

But it will take time to clamp down on a lucrative and, apparently, widespread practice. Dale Sims, chief fishmonger for Cleanfish, a San Francisco-based supplier of high-end sustainable seafood, said he’d seen thresher shark labeled as shark, swordfish and mahi-mahi all in the same market, as well as many other obvious substitutions.

“It infuriates me but it’s hard to correct,” he said. “I’m embarrassed to say that there’s been a lot of fragmentation in this industry. So if someone is unscrupulous, it’s been easy to get away with it.”

For consumers, the issue is about dollars and cents — wanting to get the quality and type of fish they paid for. “If you’re ordering steak, you would never be served horse meat,” said Dr. Hirshfield of Oceana. “But you can easily be ordering snapper and get tilapia or Vietnamese catfish.”

Environmentalists worry that duped diners may be unwittingly contributing to declining fish stocks, buying food they have been told to avoid. Dr. Hebert said that in testing samples from the United States and Canada, his lab had even detected meat from endangered sharks being sold to diners. “If it were labeled endangered species,” he said, “you couldn’t sell it and you wouldn’t buy it, right?”

Most of the research has been done not by regulators but by individual fish biologists and geneticists; to date no definitive national study has been carried out on the scope of the fraud.

Dana Miller, a doctoral student who worked with Dr. Mariani in Dublin studying the mislabeling of cod, the most popular fish in Ireland, said, “we expected with all the policies and legislation and inspections, the numbers would be pretty low.” But 25 percent of samples of fresh cod and haddock and over 80 percent of the smoked products, were in fact something else. Irish cod stocks are overfished.

“If you can’t even trust that the name is right, then how can you trust anything else on the package, including the date?” she said. In Europe, seafood labels include the fishery where it was caught. In the United States, it must list only a “country of origin” although that is often the processing country rather than where it is caught.

The group Cleanfish is experimenting with an electronic tagging system through which each fisherman or processor would enter his code onto a tag on each fish, making its journey from the sea to the plate fully transparent. Cleanfish buys only whole fish since its outward appearance helps to verify its identity.

And bar coding is becoming more accessible every year. Today, fish samples are sent to labs for testing, but scientists predict that there will be desktop DNA bar coding systems within five years and, in 10, inspectors will carry hand-held detectors.

“Everyone should be using this technique — there should be spot checks and fines,” said Dr. Hebert of the DNA bar coding project. “If there were no speed traps and radar checks, there would be a lot more speeding.”

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=b5eac2195e9a6786a8310556ff73e6f2

Filed Under: Business News Tagged With: , ,

Flooding Takes Economic Toll, and It’s Hardly Done

May 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment

From Tennessee to Louisiana, the arteries and tributaries that normally supply the lifeblood of trade and business to the communities along the river’s banks are now paralyzing them. The engorged river has disrupted waterway commerce, delaying barge traffic and forcing some cargo to be trucked overland. Grain elevators, a crucial link to the nation’s grain exports, have been swamped. Early corn and soybean plantings on delta farms are submerged.

Like the very nature of water, the trickle-down effects of the historic flooding are leaving no corner untouched. Retail gasoline prices, already at two-year highs, and food prices could rise in the region because of supply disruptions. Tens of thousands of people are unemployed, shut out of jobs at establishments that are literally under water. State and local government coffers, strained because of the economic downturn, may lose many millions of dollars in revenue from tourism and taxes.

In about a dozen interviews, economists, farmers and industry officials said they expected hundreds of millions of dollars in damages including crop and infrastructure destruction in communities along the 740 miles of river that meanders from Memphis to New Orleans. But while the final bill has yet to be determined, the costs are already being felt.

In Yazoo County, Miss., John Phillips, a 61-year-old farmer, said thousands of acres of his cotton and corn crops had been destroyed. “In our area in the south delta, it is a widespread and very economically devastating disaster,” he said in a telephone interview, as he tried to run a pump. He said his annual revenue would be reduced by 40 percent because it was too late to replant.

In Louisiana, oyster beds have been flushed with fresh water from the river after spillways were opened. Already, the state’s crucial seafood industry had been reeling from the BP oil spill.

“Oysters are getting crucified,” said Harlon H. Pearce Jr., the executive director of Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. “This water hit at the absolute worst time.”

Along the river, barge operators are weathering the economic turbulence. It costs an operator about $10,000 a day when there is a delay with a tow, which helps the unwieldy barges, sometimes up to 45 of them tied together, navigate.

“One barge has the capacity of 16 rail cars or 70 trucks,” said Anne D. Burns, a spokeswoman at American Waterways Operators. The river’s barge traffic, Ms. Burns added, “is one of the significant building blocks of our economy.”

With the recent flooding, barges are running lighter loads and traveling during the day because navigation markers are submerged. Delays can have ripple effects throughout the economy, like slower coal deliveries to utilities, where costs can be passed on to consumers, or disruptions to the nation’s grain exports that travel down the river, she added.

“All those things are slowing down the delivery of these commodities,” Ms. Burns said.

The flooding has affected other states, including Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri. In addition to farming, businesses including catfish farms, hunting and fishing tourism, and casinos up and down the river have been affected.

About 100,000 acres of croplands, some planted with sugar cane and rice, flooded over the weekend in the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana when the Morganza spillway was opened, but the damage assessment has not been completed, said an Army Corps economist, Lee Robinson.

The economic hardships facing the affected areas would be traumatic to residents at any time, but they are also taking place when the nation is trying to recover from the 2008 financial crisis.

Economists are only just beginning to assess the potential headwinds of the Mississippi River flooding. An academic study released last week said the cost to the Memphis area, including the city and the 630,000 people in 18 counties that feed into the urban area in jobs or spending, could reach $753 million in damages to crops, residences, and commercial and public infrastructure.

An author of the study, Michael J. Hicks, the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University, said there were losses to the region’s consumer base and trade disruptions in a region that connects the manufacturing heartland of the Midwest with routes traveling between the East and the West.

“I am going to estimate in the $6 billion to $9 billion range for total damages from Memphis southward to the gulf,” Mr. Hicks said.

Between 2.1 million to 2.2 million acres of farmland have so far been affected by the flooding in the delta region, or about 1 percent of all United States cropland, according to estimates from the Army Corps of Engineers.

While acknowledging the regional devastation, however, government economists say they do not expect a national grain shortage because there are plentiful stocks. A lot will depend on whether farmers will be able to replant.

Oil companies have also been affected. In the Memphis area, Valero’s refinery is located on a bluff, and another one west of New Orleans is protected by levees. But with memories still fresh from Hurricane Katrina, Valero moved up its hurricane preparedness plans, securing equipment or moving it to higher ground, said a spokesman, Bill Day.

Exxon Mobil shut the docks at its refinery and petrochemical complex in Baton Rouge, La., and is only using its pipeline for operations. Its second refinery in Chalmette, near New Orleans, was not affected, said Kevin Allexon, a company spokesman.

Mr. Allexon said the company had contingency plans, like outside storage capacity. “We have invested a lot of resources to prepare and plan for this situation,” he said. “If you operate in the Gulf of Mexico region you need to be ready for weather-related events, whether it is flooding or hurricanes or both.”

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=1579a874700c58fcf525d9084b09142d

Filed Under: Business News Tagged With: , ,

Flooding Takes Vast Economic Toll, and It’s Hardly Done

May 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment

From Tennessee to Louisiana, the arteries and tributaries that normally supply the lifeblood of trade and business to the communities along the river’s banks are now paralyzing them. The engorged river has disrupted waterway commerce, delaying barge traffic and forcing some cargo to be trucked overland. Grain elevators, a crucial link to the nation’s grain exports, have been swamped. Early corn and soybean plantings on delta farms are submerged.

Like the very nature of water, the trickle-down effects of the historic flooding are leaving no corner untouched. Retail gasoline prices, already at two-year highs, and food prices could rise in the region because of supply disruptions. Tens of thousands of people are unemployed, shut out of jobs at establishments that are literally under water. State and local government coffers, strained because of the economic downturn, may lose many millions of dollars in revenue from tourism and taxes.

In about a dozen interviews, economists, farmers and industry officials said they expected hundreds of millions of dollars in damages including crop and infrastructure destruction in communities along the 740 miles of river that meanders from Memphis to New Orleans. But while the final bill has yet to be determined, the costs are already being felt.

In Yazoo County, Miss., John Phillips, a 61-year-old farmer, said thousands of acres of his cotton and corn crops had been destroyed. “In our area in the south delta, it is a widespread and very economically devastating disaster,” he said in a telephone interview, as he tried to run a pump. He said his annual revenue would be reduced by 40 percent because it was too late to replant.

In Louisiana, oyster beds have been flushed with fresh water from the river after spillways were opened. Already, the state’s crucial seafood industry had been reeling from the BP oil spill.

“Oysters are getting crucified,” said Harlon H. Pearce Jr., the executive director of Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. “This water hit at the absolute worst time.”

Along the river, barge operators are weathering the economic turbulence. It costs an operator about $10,000 a day when there is a delay with a tow, which helps the unwieldy barges, sometimes up to 45 of them tied together, navigate.

“One barge has the capacity of 16 rail cars or 70 trucks,” said Anne D. Burns, a spokeswoman at American Waterways Operators. The river’s barge traffic, Ms. Burns added, “is one of the significant building blocks of our economy.”

With the recent flooding, barges are running lighter loads and traveling during the day because navigation markers are submerged. Delays can have ripple effects throughout the economy, like slower coal deliveries to utilities, where costs can be passed on to consumers, or disruptions to the nation’s grain exports that travel down the river, she added.

“All those things are slowing down the delivery of these commodities,” Ms. Burns said.

The flooding has affected other states, including Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri. In addition to farming, businesses including catfish farms, hunting and fishing tourism, and casinos up and down the river have been affected.

About 100,000 acres of croplands, some planted with sugar cane and rice, flooded over the weekend in the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana when the Morganza spillway was opened, but the damage assessment has not been completed, said an Army Corps economist, Lee Robinson.

The economic hardships facing the affected areas would be traumatic to residents at any time, but they are also taking place when the nation is trying to recover from the 2008 financial crisis.

Economists are only just beginning to assess the potential headwinds of the Mississippi River flooding. An academic study released last week said the cost to the Memphis area, including the city and the 630,000 people in 18 counties that feed into the urban area in jobs or spending, could reach $753 million in damages to crops, residences, and commercial and public infrastructure.

An author of the study, Michael J. Hicks, the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University, said there were losses to the region’s consumer base and trade disruptions in a region that connects the manufacturing heartland of the Midwest with routes traveling between the East and the West.

“I am going to estimate in the $6 billion to $9 billion range for total damages from Memphis southward to the gulf,” Mr. Hicks said.

Between 2.1 million to 2.2 million acres of farmland have so far been affected by the flooding in the delta region, or about 1 percent of all United States cropland, according to estimates from the Army Corps of Engineers.

While acknowledging the regional devastation, however, government economists say they do not expect a national grain shortage because there are plentiful stocks. A lot will depend on whether farmers will be able to replant.

Oil companies have also been affected. In the Memphis area, Valero’s refinery is located on a bluff, and another one west of New Orleans is protected by levees. But with memories still fresh from Hurricane Katrina, Valero moved up its hurricane preparedness plans, securing equipment or moving it to higher ground, said a spokesman, Bill Day.

Exxon Mobil shut the docks at its refinery and petrochemical complex in Baton Rouge, La., and is only using its pipeline for operations. Its second refinery in Chalmette, near New Orleans, was not affected, said Kevin Allexon, a company spokesman.

Mr. Allexon said the company had contingency plans, like outside storage capacity. “We have invested a lot of resources to prepare and plan for this situation,” he said. “If you operate in the Gulf of Mexico region you need to be ready for weather-related events, whether it is flooding or hurricanes or both.”

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=1579a874700c58fcf525d9084b09142d

Filed Under: Business News Tagged With: , ,