False fish

I didn’t want to let this fish story get away without comment:

MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. — What the undercover agents ordered, over and over, was the grouper.

What wound up on their plates could stifle anyone’s appetite.

The alleged grouper at 17 of 24 area restaurants sampled by the investigators was actually another, less desirable species, according to a DNA analysis conducted for the state attorney general’s office and released earlier this month. Asian catfish. Emperor. Painted sweetlips. And twice, types of fish that could not be identified.

“It’s a rip-off — like taking a cheap watch and selling it as a Rolex,” said Bob Spaeth, who owns six commercial fishing boats and co-owns one of the largest grouper distributors on the Gulf Coast. “Someone should go to jail.”

The question is, who?

The retailer probably bought the fish from a wholesaler as grouper; who bought it from an Asian importer as grouper; who may, for all we know, have bought it as grouper and paid grouper prices, too.

There isn’t much in the way of international civil codes. Do the international accords cover such matters?

The situation has created an opportunity for entrepeneurs:

Sysco West Coast Florida representatives said that they know a problem exists, and that last year they began testing about one of every several hundred to several thousand pounds of purported grouper. Each test costs $180.

They have also warned suppliers that they will not do business with those who falsely label their products.

Since testing began, the proportion of false grouper has dropped from 50 percent to 20 percent, said Lee Ann Applewhite, the chief executive of Applied Food Technologies, which conducted the tests for Sysco.

There’s a saying in the antiques biz: assume everything is fake. Apparently, it applies to the food supply business as well. So, as Mark in Mexico suggests, know your fish. And don’t pay fancy prices unless you see the fish.

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