Almost never you get what you pay for: Widespread mislabeling of commercial “zamburiñas” in northern Spain

Sustainable Management Plans in Fisheries and Genetic Tools: An Overview of the Challenge in Invertebrates’ Fisheries at the Central Area of the Southern Bay of Biscay, Spain

“…These results are in agreement with the numerous works previously carried out that used molecular markers as an effective tool for the identification of species-both in fresh and frozen products as well as in highly processed ones-that, in many cases, were impossible to identify without the use of this type of tools [49][50][51][52]. At the same time as Parrondo et al study [48] was published, Klapper and Schröder report the development of a multiplex qPCR assay using a TaqMan probe that allowed the rapid and reliable identification of three commercially important scallop species in German supermarkets and fishmongers-the scallop (P. maximus), the Atlantic scallop (Placopecten magellanicus), and the Japanese scallop (Patinopecten yessoensis) [53]. Using this new tool, Klapper and Schroeder revealed a mislabeling rate of 48%-especially high for products purchased in fish shops.…”

“…Where appropriate, the rate of mislabeling in supermarkets was relatively low (5 out of 21, 24%) compared to fishmongers (8 out of 10, 80%) and restaurants (2 out of 2, 100%) [53]. Despite differences in methodology and target species, the results obtained for Germany by Klapper and Schröder are consistent with the data produced by Parrondo et al [48] for Asturias.…”

“…In recent years, molecular biology techniques-based on DNA and sequencinghave gained notoriety in the study of mislabeling and food fraud, allowing species identification even if the product under suspicion is highly processed [46,47]. A combined assessment of the levels of fraud in the commercialization of fresh and processed specimens of the family Pectinidae, both in retail establishments and restaurants, has been carried out using genetic methods based on mtDNA-16S rRNA gene-and taxonomic methods in Asturias [48]. That research showed that out of 148 samples of 15 commercial products analyzed, 73 samples (49%) and 9 (60%) of the 15 commercial products studied were mislabeled.…”

“…These investigations join those previously presented by other authors, both in the development or use of forensic biology techniques and in the creation of a threshold of knowledge in the study of mislabeling and fraud of fishery products from marine invertebrates, specifically scallops [54][55][56][57][58][59]. Despite the difficulty in making accurate estimates of the extent of mislabeling, especially in invertebrates due to lack of data and bias toward certain taxa and geographical areas [60], the high percentages of errors in product labeling found in Parrondo et al [48] are not unusual in other European countries, such as Iceland, Finland, or Germany, where similar results of between 40 and 50% were obtained [51]. These percentages are alarming if we take into account that most of the samplings carried out for these studies (including the present one) lack temporality, being performed only once in a specific locality, so the approximations tend to be always conservative [49].…”

Development of a DNA Metabarcoding Method for the Identification of Bivalve Species in Seafood Products

“…Correct labelling of seafood products is important for traceability issues, protection of endangered species, mitigation of illegal fishing, and for individual reasons of end consumers [10,11]. Regardless of clear and strict requirements for species declaration, incorrect labelling of bivalve products has repeatedly been detected in Europe [12][13][14][15][16][17]. In German and Swiss studies, more than half of the products declared to contain "Jakobsmuschel" (or "Jacobsmuschel") were labelled incorrectly [15,18,19].…”