Teenage DNA detectives expose US fish fraud

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

Up to a quarter of fish in stores and restaurants in New York City was mislabelled as a more expensive variety, according to samples collected by two US teenagers and tested with genetic "barcoding" methods.

In the worst cases, two samples of filleted fish sold as red snapper, caught mostly off the southeast United States and in the Caribbean, were instead the endangered Acadian redfish from the North Atlantic, according to the tests, revealed on Friday.

"We never expected these results. People should get what they pay for," said Kate Stoeckle, 18, of the project with Louisa Strauss, 17.

The two classmates from New York's Trinity school collected and sent off 60 fish samples to the University of Guelph in Canada. Of 56 samples that could be identified by a the DNA barcoding identification technique, 14 were mislabelled.

In all cases, the fish was labelled as a more costly type, apparently ruling out simple chance. It was the first known student use of DNA barcoding technology in a public market.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=5636295&page=1

---

Meme to Obama - you gotta place for these two young ladies in your FDA?

[BlooInBloo]

1. Thank god for Pike Place Market....

EDIT: Came up with something better to say.

[Duer 157099]

2. Hey! I want a DNA barcode reader!

Are they on ebay yet?

Reminds me of that great flick GATACA!

[Celebration]

3. this is fraudulent

People should get some serious jailtime for things like this.

[DCKit]

6. Not only to consumers, but demonstrates the potential for a huge black market...

in endangered or protected species as well as fish from banned or protected areas.

This shit has got to stop.

[OwnedByFerrets]

4. There has been a huge crack down going on

on the gulf coast for 2 yrs now. Grouper was being sold that wasnt grouper.

[QC]

5. Here it was Vietnamese catfish being sold as grouper.

The dealer caught doing it was fined over a million bucks.

[Gormy Cuss]

7. Redfish is endangered now?

When I was a kid it was the most common fillet for frozen fish and the carcasses were sold as bait.

[Bette Noir]

8. You think that's scary?

There are states in the Northeast where cottontail rabbits are near extinction. Can you imagine an environment so degraded that rabbits can't breed?

[iconicgnom]

11. A total indictment. But what law does it break?

While the US has been passing laws restricting freedom both at home and abroad so's to build a more perfect police state, it doesn't seem to've given a shit about much else. That's THE PROBLEM. But this problem has been with us for such a long time that it can clearly be seen to cross administrations and party lines, and even international lines. Let's admit that much. The problem appears more like a condition of the people, and only secondarily a condition of their gov'ts -- in a democracy the people get the kind of gov't that they demand, in a democracy the people rally behind political parties that best express their motivations.

[Kaleko]

14. Yep. Couldn't agree more. n/t

[mtf80123]

17. Kinda like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FKZuVlDTbE

[sasquatch]

9. The kids are alright

[grasswire]

10. I had some "scallops" the other day...

...that I'm positive were not scallops but some kind of white fish. Scallops are sweet and have a disctinctive texture. These were not. I know that sometimes skate has been sold as scallops. This was in a Vietnamese restaurant.

[OwnedByFerrets]

12. Scallops are more often than not sting rays...nt

[AtheistCrusader]

15. Sometimes Ling Cod.

Heard straight from a fisherman's mouth.

[Lisa0825]

29. You can tell the real scallops by the texture and direction of the fibers

from a discussion on the Snopes board....

"The muscle fibers in a real scallop will be different than those in a ray or shark. When you eat a scallop, you are eating the adductor muscle which is striated. This is the muscle used to control the shells and it is very powerful. The fibers in this muscle always run lengthwise. If you take a fork (or fingers) you can easily pull apart this muscle. It should seperate like string cheese, leaving chunks that have split cleanly down the long axis. The ray and shark meat won't behave this way with the same manipulation."

I also read it described this way... fake scallops often have fibers that run across the circular shape, rather than up and down. If you buy scallops and the fibers run the wrong way, or it is a mixture of right way and wrong way, you were ripped off.

[Hugin]

34. Thanks for the sage advice.

However, I don't think my local fishmonger is going to be too keen on me digging around in the freezer case with a fork
checking out the scallops. :)

On second thought, maybe I should.

[Lisa0825]

36. LOL!

Yeah, I wouldn't dig in them before buying either... but if I bought them and then found out they were fake, I most certainly would return them!

[HEyHEY]

13. Jinkys!

Meddling kids!

[judasdisney]

16. Stunning -- Top 10 Reactions

(1) Republican: "Meddling Democrat punks. Wiretap them immediately."

(2) Democrat: "Nice job, but those kids are probably young Naderites"

(3) Obama Democrat: "Nice job, but their image is too radical, not safe-looking enough"

(4) Clinton Democrat: "Nice job, but I got 18 million votes"

(5) Karl Rove: "Nice job, but it's not the government's role to serve the public unless powergrabs & crony cash contracts are involved."

(6) ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, AP: "Nice job, but it's not the government's role to serve the public unless powergrabs & crony cash contracts are involved."

(7) Nancy Pelosi: "We want to look forward, not past. Future investigation is off the table."

(8) Henry Waxman: "Nice job, but I want to investigate steroids instead. Who's Sibel Edmonds?"

(9) Bigfoot: No official comment

(10) FBI: "DNA testing technology in the hands of teenagers substantiates two conclusions: First, that we've been justified in wiretapping these two meddling Conspiracy Theorist punks since February 2001; and second, that Bruce Ivins is the Anthrax Terrorist. There will be no further questions."

[Loudmxr]

20. 1-7 really funny nice work

If I could suggest another 8 and a "call back" in style to 10.

8) Henry Waxman- "This is an outrage. I am going to write a stern letter."

9) Attorney General Mukasy- "I don't see a crime here."

10) FBI- "We don't see a crime here. By the way have we told you lately that Bruce Ivins is the Anthrax Terrorist?? Any questions? ... Really we got lots more stuff on him. Anyone? OK I'll just ..go now."

Love your work :grouphug:

[Norrin Radd]

22. LOL

[Hugin]

25. (11) DHS: Soylent Green is people!!1!i!!

LOL! Thanks for the opening judasdisney! :)

[Trajan]

18. Fuck ... I hate liars ...

But Im surrounded by them ....

[conspirator]

19. Cheating and poisoning others for a profit is acceptable in our money driven society n/t

[fasttense]

21. You said it all conspirator.

Money is the new God. If you have money, no matter how ill gotten, you are blessed by God. God wouldn't give money to sinners. Only the blessed are bestowed with stolen loot.

[PfcHammer]

23. Sounds fishy

:rofl:

[Hugin]

24. I bet that's true when we get around to Soylent Green, too.

Won't be much CEO DNA in those crackers.

[fjc]

27. Republican reaction:

Will it still be called soylent "green" if it's made from black folk?:sarcasm:

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. Isn't this the FDA's job?

[Xithras]

28. This is why I filet my own fish.

This isn't exactly a new thing. Unscrupulous fishmongers have been upselling filets just about as long as they've been around. The only way to get around them is to buy your fish whole and filet it yourself. IMO, they taste better anyway (fish tend to dry out once they have been cut into filets, and stores counter this by spraying water on them...which alters and dilutes the flavor).

You're stuck if you're in a restaraunt, but I can't even remember the last time I bought a pre-sliced fish for cooking at home.

[Javaman]

30. arggg! if it wasn't for those medaling kids!!!

Good going kids!!! Cheers! :)

[WriteDown]

31. Boy, this takes me back....

Coming from a person who's family had a fish market. For years, mako shark was sold as swordfish because it was cheaper and tasted essentially the same. Then swordfish became fashionable with the "in" crowd and now mako is more expensive than swordfish. Go figure.

[WriteDown]

35. meant

that mako became popular with the "in" crowd.

[Realityhack]

32. Cool. people doing science. That rocks. n/t

[lovuian]

33. love these kids

brilliant can they run our FDA pretty please Obama