Fish and Chips

Having that much data available is key to helping solve a major problem. Seafood substitution is a significant component of a problem that, in total, costs the industry $10 to $15 billion per year, robbing it not only of revenues but also of the consumer confidence that is so vital to its health. Consumers’ chances of encountering fraud in the form of mislabeled fish are quite high every time they order fish in a restaurant or enter a fish market. While regulatory requirements and enforcement are part of the solution, the seafood industry recognizes the pressing need to eliminate fraud in all its forms.

Traditional methods of fish species determination have been tedious and often unreliable, but cutting edge technology in the form of lab-on-a-chip DNA testing is now available to provide fast, easy, automated, low-cost, and reliable results to meet the strong desire of industry and regulatory agencies to provide high-value products and maintain consumer confidence. ■

Zavitsanos is worldwide food business manager at Agilent Technologies Inc. Reach him at [email protected].

References

1. Rasmussen RS, Morissey MT. DNA-based methods for the identification of commercial fish and seafood species. Compr Rev Food Sci Food Safety. 2008;7(3):280-295.
2. Dooley JJ, Sage HD, Brown HM, et al. Improved fish species identification by use of lab-on-a-chip technology. Food Control. 2005;16(7):601–607.
3. Dooley JJ, Sage HD, Clarke ML, et al. Fish species identification using PCR-RFLP analysis and lab-on-a-chip capillary electrophoresis: application to detect white fish species in food products and an interlaboratory study. J Agric Food Chem. 2005;53(9):3348–3357.