I recently got an extreme case of gastroenteritis that came on without warning. I did not have a gurgling tummy. I did not feel ill. I did not have diarrhea. I sat down to eat an order of blackened tilapia, roasted potatoes and broccoli in an Applebee’s (not my choice) and began to feel sick just as the food was placed before me on the table. Three days later I had everything mentioned above and my doctor confirmed stomach flu was what I was suffering from after just recovering from almost 6 weeks of some other bacterial disturbance. Today Dr. Oz did a segment on bait and switch food practices that threaten one’s health. It made me wonder whether my bout of stomach flu had been brought on by fish food fraud.
what is fish food fraud
Fish food fraud refers to what happens in our perverted food supply when food starts off as one thing but in its life from hook to the dinner plate is mislabeled as something it is not. Researchers, from the conservation group Oceana, said that genetic analyses showed that 39 percent of nearly 150 samples of fresh seafood collected from 81 establishments in NY city last summer were mislabeled. Dr. Oz used the journey of farmed catfish in Thailand that is then sent to Hong Kong to be frozen. From there it is sent to several distributors, both large and small in the United States where the fish winds up being labeled “grouper.”
Most Frequent Bait and Switches
This happens frequently with fish like cod, wild salmon, red snapper. Cod is often swiped out with Escolar. Tilefish often replaces Red snapper, and catfish and grouper are often swiped out.
I grew up eating red snapper. In fact, notwithstanding my somewhat evolved palate, my favorite meal is, fried red snapper, red beans and rice, green salad and cornbread. This was a meal I ate often in Seattle, Washington. But here on the east coast, I cannot get red snapper for under $20 dollars per pound. So that limits this joy. When I buy red snapper however, I expect that it will be red snapper , i.e. what the seller purports it to be.
Once however when the fish did not look like red snapper I asked the merchant if I could see the box the fish had arrived in. But they would not comply.
If you don’t know what you are eating you may wind up with a bad case of gastroenteritis like me. Escolar is poisonous and a very small part should be consumed by humans is what the Oceana representative said. But how can you monitor that if you don’t know what you are eating? When tilefish is swiped out for red snapper, you run the risk of eating a fish high in mercury content. Same question: how can you monitor what you don’t know.
Here’ s what you can do:
- Buy Fish whole.
- Even if you don’t buy the whole fish, have them cut the fish in front of you.
- Challenge Vendors if you feel you are not receiving what you are paying for.
boomrwiz says
Hello Sienna. The British horse meat scandal does scare me both because I can’t wrap my head around eating horse or if it is just the not knowing. Nothing beats looking the fish in the eye, does it.
Sienna Jae Fein says
This is such an important message. It’s hard to know what you’re really eating these days (think of the British horse meat scandal)! My significant other and I both love to cook we rarely eat in restaurants. This is only partly because it’s economical. We also think it helps to avoid a lot of grief of the kind you describe.
We either buy a whole fish, or we select a whole fish and watch the fishmonger clean and portion it. We believe in looking a fish in the eye and checkin’ his gills — he’ll tell you whether he’s fresh or not.
Shay says
This is a scary story. Thanks for sharing. All the more reason to become a vegan and I love fish. I stopped eating chicken because of all of the precautions you had to take to avoid contamination, now we have to do the same with fish. I guess the lesson for me is to know my fishmonger..
boomrwiz says
Hi Shay
Thank you for visiting the site. I have given much serious thought to becoming a vegan or vegetarian as well. We just have to be vigilant.
Linda Thomas Anderson says
Good advice, thanks for sharing!
boomrwiz says
Linda, thanks for reading and for introducing me to http://www.lalaslalaland.com