Seafood is a significant source of protein for three billion people globally and contributes $6 billion to the Canadian economy. However, a lack of coordinated policy impacts the economic viability of Canadian seafood suppliers because of seafood fraud and unintentional mislabelling.
Up to 44 percent of seafood sold in Canada may be mislabelled. Seafood mislabeling (and fraud) is a significant problem with harmful impacts across the supply chain from producer to consumer. Fraud and mislabelling in the seafood industry compromises sustainable fisheries and undermines conservation efforts—in part by making it difficult for consumers to avoid supporting socially or ecologically problematic fisheries.
Mislabelling can also create health risks for consumers, such as tetrodotoxin poisoning from puffer fish and gastrointestinal distress from escolar. Because mislabeling and fraud negatively affect consumer confidence in the industry, approximately 55 percent of consumers doubt that the seafood they consume is what it says on the package.
Without accurate labelling, there’s simply no way for consumers to know if they are making a sustainable and responsible seafood choice.
With the longest coastline in the world that supports a large and vibrant seafood industry, Canada should be a leader on matters pertaining to ocean sustainability, including seafood. Taking a step in the right direction, the Canadian government has committed to introducing a boat-to-plate traceability system in Canada - though the details of this have yet to be decided. For this new system to have the greatest benefit to Canadian consumers and to be fair across businesses, it should apply to all seafood products whether domestically produced or imported.
Canadians should feel confident about the seafood they’re buying, which is why we’re excited to announce the launch of a new cross-sector collaboration project to explore solutions to Canada’s chronic seafood mislabelling problem.
In partnership with world-leading eDNA researcher, Dr. Robert Hanner, the team at SeaChoice, and BC-based seafood company, Organic Ocean, we will explore Canada’s seafood mislabelling problem and a potential solution – species verification through DNA barcoding.
DNA barcoding is a powerful tool for identifying mislabelled seafood products. The technology compares the DNA from a seafood sample against a global database – the Barcode of Life Data System – which contains sequences from hundreds of thousands of species.
Over several months, this project takes consumers behind the scenes and into the lab to show you what goes on during the DNA barcoding process. Every step will be documented from sample collection to analysis of the tissue and reporting the results.
The outcome of this project is intended to determine whether DNA authentication is a useful and cost-effective tool in Organic Ocean’s mission to provide its customers with sustainable, traceable and accurately labelled seafood. We will also explore the impact that DNA authentication has on improving consumer confidence and trust in the veracity of the seafood which they purchase. To accomplish this, Organic Ocean has offered to be the subject of a study that will involve an objective “cradle to grave” chronicle of the use of DNA barcoding to evaluate if its seafood is being accurately labeled (is the species identified on the label the same as the species described on the package?). The results of the DNA authentication will be communicated transparently to Organic Ocean customers and other stakeholders and be used by Organic Ocean to identify suppliers and/or products that present a higher mislabeling risk. The cost of this approach will be compared against the estimated value provided.
Transparency and traceability are essential for a sustainable seafood supply chain, which is why we’ve taken on this cutting edge initiative to pull back the curtain on Organic Ocean’s products.
