Oct. 28--Is that wild salmon you're eating truly "wild-caught"? It may not be, if you're enjoying it in January, according to a new study from Oceana, an international conservancy group, that zeroed in on the impact seasonality can have on the availability of hugely popular salmon.
Oceana's researchers found 43 percent of 82 samples of salmon that they collected from restaurants and grocery stores in the winter of 2013-2014, then put through DNA testing, had been mislabeled. The biggest culprit: 69 percent of "farmed" Atlantic salmon was being sold as "wild-caught."
In Chicago, 38 percent of the samples were mislabeled. In several cities in Virginia, it was 48 percent; in Washington, D.C., it was 45 percent; and it was 37 percent in New York City.
Oceana has tackled fish and seafood mislabeling issues before. The salmon mislabeling rate was lower in its 2013 nationwide survey with a 7 percent mislabeling rate. Those samples, though, were collected when wild salmon was plentiful at the market.
The majority of wild salmon in the U.S. is caught before the major spawning runs (which can start as early as March and continue as late as December), according to the report. Most salmon here is caught from May to November.
Why does it matter? "In winter months, when fresh wild salmon should be less abundant, it is suspiciously prevalent on American menus," the report noted, questioning the freshness and "wildness" of much of that winter salmon.
"While U.S. fishermen catch enough salmon to satisfy 80 percent of our domestic demand, 70 percent of that catch is then exported instead of going directly to American grocery stores and restaurants," noted Kimberly Warner, report author and senior scientist at Oceana, in a release. "It's anyone's guess how much of our wild domestic salmon makes its way back to the U.S. after being processed abroad."
Without traceability, Warner added, "What we end up eating is mostly cheaper, imported farmed salmon, sometimes masquerading as U.S. wild-caught fish."
And that can have an impact on your wallet, as well as ecological and economic issues.
Among the study's findings:
--"Salmon purchased out-of-season from all retail types was three times more likely to be mislabeled than salmon purchased during the commercial fishing season (23 percent vs. 8 percent, respectively)."
--"Diners were five times more likely to be misled in restaurants than grocery stores (38 percent vs. 7 percent)."
--"Consumers are less likely to be misled in large grocery store chains that are required to give additional information about seafood."
While the salmon name can show up on several different members of the Salmonidae family (think: chinook, sockeye, coho, etc.), the samples gathered by the Oceana researchers were considered to be mislabeled based on two factors, according to the report: If they were described as being "wild," "Alaskan" or "Pacific," but DNA testing found it to be farmed Atlantic salmon. Or, the samples were labeled as a specific type of salmon, like "chinook," but testing revealed them to be different species (in most cases lower-value fish).
So what can consumers do? Here are a few tips from Oceana:
--Ask: About the fish you're buying. Is it wild-caught or farm-raised? Where and how was it caught?
--Buy: Fresh seafood in season.
--Get: Products with additional information for consumers, say, the type of salmon (chinook, king, coho, etc.). These were less likely to be mislabeled.
--Price check: "If the price is too good to be true, it probably is. You may be purchasing a different fish than what is on the menu or label."
