• Home
  • About Us
  • Our Services
  • Tools, Templates and Training
  • Learn about food fraud
  • Report a food crime
  • News
You are here: Home / Authenticity / Fish mislabelling; malicious fraud or sloppy supply chains?

25th February 2016 by foodfraudadvisors

Fish mislabelling; malicious fraud or sloppy supply chains?

Nice one, Food Standards Scotland.

What looked at first to be a number of cases of deliberate fraud was given some sensible attention and analysis by Food Standards Scotland (FSS), with unexpected results.  The organisation surveyed fish products supplied to their public sector food outlets, including hospitals and schools, to get a snapshot of the degree of species mislabelling. Of the 264 samples tested, around 6% of those (15) were mislabelled.

Any mislabelling is a breach of trust and a breach of food laws, but a result of 6% is relatively low and not likely to have a large economic impact.  Nevertheless, FSS investigated each of the incidences, retested products and spoke to the suppliers directly.

 

food fraud definition

Product labelled as haddock was the type most often found have been mislabelled during the survey, with ‘haddock’ found to be another fish species in 8 of 50 samples (16%).  As you would expect when considering fish species fraud, the most common substitute for haddock was a cheaper fish, whiting, the two types of fillets having similar appearance, flavour and texture.  Interestingly, however, almost half of all the ‘fraudulent’ samples were in fact an expensive fish (haddock) mislabelled as a cheaper species (whiting or coley).  Those results are obviously not ones you would expect to find when investigating fish fraud, and they are unlikely to be the result of any deliberate attempt to gain an economic advantage.

To the credit of the FSS they uncovered the cause of the mislabelling for most of the incidences; suppliers of the mislabelled fish admitted that they sometimes had trouble identifying incoming block fillets.  Some also admitted that they were not adequately separating or labelling different fish species during processing, handling and packing operations.  The suppliers in question have implemented improvements and have requested better labelling of their suppliers to prevent future occurrences; good news for the Scottish seafood industry.

More information and a copy of the report can be found here

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

Filed Under: Authenticity, Food Fraud, Labelling, Supply Chain Tagged With: economically motivated adulteration, fish species, food fraud, integrity, supply chain

MORE FROM FOOD FRAUD ADVISORS

Food Fraud in Food Additives

Food additives such as flavour-enhancers, gums, enzymes, emulsifiers, stabilizers, anti-caking agents, anti-oxidants and … [Read More...]

Important Announcement About the Food Fraud Risk Information Database on Trello

On 1st September 2022, there was a major change to Food Fraud Advisors' Food Fraud Risk Information Database on … [Read More...]

food vulnerability assessment

Food Safety Standards Compared (2022)

    When it comes to food fraud, each food safety standard has slightly different food fraud … [Read More...]

Investigating Susceptibility to Food Fraud

Updated 26th June 2022 Some foods are more susceptible than others to economically motivated adulteration, … [Read More...]

Top 5 Food Frauds of 2022 (so far)

Food Fraud Advisors' Principal, Karen Constable, shares her top five food frauds for 2022. At the time of writing, … [Read More...]

follow

  • View foodfraudadvice’s profile on Facebook
  • View karenconstable4’s profile on Twitter
  • LinkedIn

© Copyright 2015 - 2022 Food Fraud Advisors · All Rights Reserved · Privacy Policy