Mislabeling of Salmon at
Restaurants, Stores

A DNA study of 82 samples of salmon from 7 restaurants and grocery stores in New York, Washington, Virginia and Chicago found that two-thirds of fish served at restaurants and one-fifth of the salmon from grocery stores was mislabeled, typically as “wild” where the fish was actually a farmed specimen. The study also found that species misidentification was a common problem, with lower grade salmon such as chums marketed as Kings (Chinook), and in some cases rainbow trout marketed as salmon.

The report also found that while U.S. fisheries could supply 80% of the nation’s demand for wild caught salmon, over 70% of that catch is now exported.

Although it may not dawn on consumers that the fish they’ve overpaid for is of lower quality than its wild caught counterparts, the real losers here are commercial salmon fishermen, who lose market share to farm-raised imposter fish and who don’t realize the full value of the demand for their hard-wrought product.