DNA Tests Reveal Fishy Fraud

Few sushi fans expect to find fraudulent fish at their favorite restaurant. But a team of researchers from Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History discovered you might not be getting what you order from the menu. The study was published on Wednesday in PLOS One.

The scientists were working on DNA barcoding, a new species-identification technique. As part of the experiment, researchers visited 31 sushi restaurants and tried to determine what types of fish they were dining on. More than half of the restaurants falsely represented or weren’t clear about what was being served. Endangered southern bluefin tuna and stomach-upsetting escolar were frequently billed as tuna.

“A piece of tuna sushi has the potential to be an endangered species, a fraud or a health hazard,” the authors wrote in the study. “All three of these cases were uncovered in this study.”

AUTHOR: Annette Hulbert