A new study jointly conducted by Oceana, Søndagsavisen a Danish newspaper and the TV program “Go’Aften Denmark” reveals 18% of cod sold in fishmongers is not actually cod, but haddock or saithe.
Mislabelling of seafood, or seafood fraud, is thought to be quite extensive throughout Europe partly due to weaknesses in the current traceability system for fish as well as low levels of control checks. The study lead by Oceana, collected 120 samples in total from fishmongers, supermarkets and restaurants in the wider Copenhagen region, for DNA analysis.
The DNA analysis revealed that 18% of the fish sold as cod where in fact haddock or saithe. These two species are closely related to cod and are often sold at a lower price than cod, the study argues that it is not only fraud but also pose a momentary loss for the consumer as they in many cases pay overprices for haddock or saithe.
The study is not the first of its kind in Europe, earlier studies have shown mislabeling of hake in Spain to 30%, 19% of cod in Ireland is mislabel whereas France where reported to have 3.5% mislabel cod.