| Abstract: |
Almost 60 per cent of a popular roasted fish fillet in China is fraudulently mislabelled, according to a sampling study using DNA barcoding. Published in the journal Food Control, the study, which built on a previous smaller investigation, applied DNA and mini-DNA barcoding to identify the species of 153 roasted Xue Yu fish fillet products of 30 brands. The researchers from Italy and China found that 58 per cent of the products were mislabelled, with the fish in the products found to come from different species, and note in the paper that seafood species substitution ca be “a great threat to human health” and the “protection of deplete species.”Roasted Xue Yu fillets, which go through a series of processing steps, are among the most common fish products in China, proving to be popular with consumers and sporting a premium price tag, which can be in excess of 300 yuan (around $46) per kilogram. However, Xue Yu (Mandarin for cod) is often a target for adulteration.“The term Xue Yu, in a broad sense, generally refers to fish of the family Gadidae and to related species within the order Gadiformes,” the researchers said, noting that “cod ” is a generic name for many species and the name itself does not assist specific species identification.“Since specific provisions for the labelling of fishery products and a standardised seafood nomenclature in China are still not available, there is still not a harmonisation around the definition of Xue Yu. |
