Known supplier risks in seafood and fish

1. 1

   Species substitution, a cheaper fish sold under a premium name

   A lower-value fish is labelled and sold as a higher-value species (for example tilapia or catfish sold as red snapper), which is invisible once the fish is filleted, skinned or frozen. Buyers pay a premium for a species they did not receive, and an unexpected species can also carry an undisclosed allergen or food-safety risk.

   Documented across the US by Oceana; species substitution is also named in FDA's economic-adulteration import alert.

   Your control: Require random DNA/species testing of sample batches from an independent lab, especially for high-value species (snapper, tuna, grouper, Chilean seabass) and for filleted or frozen product where the species is not visually verifiable.

   Oceana, national DNA seafood-fraud study: of 1,215 samples from 674 retail outlets across 21 states, 33% were mislabelled per FDA guidelines; snapper and tuna were the worst, mislabelled 87% and 59% of the time, and only 7 of 120 red-snapper samples were actually red snapper FDA Import Alert 99-47 (Detention Without Physical Examination of Human Food Products That Appear to be Adulterated for Economic Gain): names species substitution in seafood, selling a less expensive species as a more expensive one, as a documented economic-adulteration pattern

2. 2

   Excess water glaze added to inflate net weight

   Frozen seafood is coated with more ice glaze than needed for protection, and that added water is counted as part of the billed net weight, so the buyer pays seafood prices for water. FDA classifies this as economically motivated adulteration.

   Documented by the FDA as a standing US import-control category for imported frozen seafood.

   Your control: Contract on drained (deglazed) net weight, not gross glazed weight, and require an independent surveyor to verify drained weight against the Codex Alimentarius method before releasing final payment; a supplier quoting only glazed weight on a frozen product is quoting you partly for water.

   FDA Import Alert 99-47: the reason-for-alert text expressly lists 'the inclusion of water glaze as part of the product net weight in seafood' as a form of economically motivated adulteration subject to detention without physical examination

3. 3

   Banned antibiotics used to mask poor aquaculture

   Farmed seafood, shrimp in particular, is treated with antibiotics that are banned in food production (such as nitrofurans) to compensate for unsanitary aquaculture conditions; residues remain in the product and are only detectable by lab testing, not by inspection.

   Documented by the FDA for aquaculture seafood, with shrimp from several Asian producing countries the most-refused.

   Your control: Require a maximum-residue-limit (MRL) certificate of analysis for nitrofurans and chloramphenicol from an independent lab in the country of origin before loading, and write 'subject to FDA/EU border clearance' into the sales contract so the risk of a border refusal sits with the supplier, not you.

   FDA Import Alert 16-129 (Detention Without Physical Examination of Seafood Products Due to Nitrofurans): aquaculture seafood, especially shrimp, is refused entry to the US over residues of nitrofurans, a class of antibiotic banned in food-producing animals

Browse checked suppliers

• Makanan Laut & Budidaya Perairan manufacturers with open-record checks

Questions