According to a new report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), fraudulent activities in the fishing sector encompass several categories, such as:
- falsification, for example, the use of dyes to enhance the appearance of tuna or salmon;
- counterfeiting, when "shrimp" is made from starch compounds;
- imitation, when fish paste is passed off as "crab sticks";
- redirecting legal products to non-target markets;
- false positioning, when the "eco-friendliness" of products is claimed or misleading information about their origin is provided;
- species substitution, for example, when tilapia is sold as red snapper.
Health Risks
FAO emphasizes that fraud in fish and seafood trade can negatively impact human health, the environment, and the economy as a whole.A Global Problem
According to FAO, no continent is immune to fraud in the fishing sector, including Latin America and Asia. In the United States, about one-third of fish products have incorrect or misleading information on their packaging, while inspection covers only about one percent of these products.Restaurants are also not exempt, receiving up to 30% of goods with incorrect labeling.
Easy Money in Fish Fraud
For example, selling farmed Atlantic salmon as Pacific salmon yields nearly $10 additional profit per kilogram. Prices for seabass presented in Italy as local can be two to three times higher than the cost of the same fish caught in Greece or Turkey, and even more if offered as wild catch.Another common method is adding water to increase the weight and price of the product.
Measures to Combat Fraud
The FAO report suggests strengthening labeling requirements for fish and seafood, as well as implementing mandatory scientific names where possible and improving control systems.The organization reminds that modern technologies, including nuclear methods, can be used to verify the authenticity, freezing, and origin of fish products.
Photo on the main page is illustrative: © FAO/K. Arrigo.
