Seafood Mislabeling Report Highlights BSB Challenge
Better Seafood Bureau Calls Practice Unethical and Illegal
August 22, 2008 Washington, DC – Media reports from Toronto to New York are trumpeting the results of a Canadian study that enlisted the help of American teenagers to collect seafood samples for DNA testing. The reports say a quarter of the fish tested was mislabeled.
“While there is no way for us to speak to the validity of the study, or its results, it highlights the fact that the integrity of the whole seafood industry is under scrutiny and even allegations of mislabeling and specie substitution can have a serious impact,” said National Fisheries Institute President John Connelly.
Canadian coverage of the report characterized the Better Seafood Bureau’s (BSB) economic integrity efforts as “reputable representatives” dedicated to “ferreting out false marketing.”
“When you do business with a BSB member you can have peace of mind that you’re not going to end up on the wrong end of a DNA test,” said BSB Secretary Lisa Weddig. “It’s unlikely that this is the last round of DNA seafood tests we’ll see in the media.”
The study’s results were published by the University of Guelph as part of an international network of researchers working with the Fish Barcode of Life campaign.
“Suggestions in the media that people are unwittingly being served endangered species is a bit of a stretch that puts this story on the road to unnecessary hysteria but the bottom line is, any type of specie substitution is not only unethical it’s illegal. BSB members have gotten that message loud and clear,” said Connelly.
For more than 60 years, the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) and its members have provided American families with the variety of sustainable seafood essential to a healthy diet. For more information visit: www.AboutSeafood.com.
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Contact Information
Gavin Gibbons
703.752.8891
