--- title: Fish Fraud: One in Five Seafood Samples Are Mislabeled description: A new report from Oceana reveals one in five seafood samples are mislabeled worldwide. canonical: https://time.com/4480426/fish-fraud-is-absolutely-rampant-new-report/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-07T07:00:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T00:25:08.562Z article:section: Health og:title: Fish Fraud: One in Five Seafood Samples Are Mislabeled og:description: There’s a good chance you’re not getting what you think you’re getting og:url: https://time.com/4480426/fish-fraud-is-absolutely-rampant-new-report/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdd618d49ccfe077d/6988a4f8196cf4b8e303d15b/fish.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Packaged Fresh Fish og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Fish Fraud: One in Five Seafood Samples Are Mislabeled twitter:description: There’s a good chance you’re not getting what you think you’re getting twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdd618d49ccfe077d/6988a4f8196cf4b8e303d15b/fish.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Fish Fraud Is Absolutely Rampant: New Report > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Sep 7, 2016 7:00 AM UTC  Shana Novak—Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Sep 7, 2016 7:00 AM UTC There’s something fishy happening in the seafood industry. According to a [new report](http://www.oceana.org/DeceptiveDishes) from the ocean conservation advocacy group Oceana, one in five of over 25,000 samples of seafood tested globally was [mislabeled](http://time.com/4412535/food-fraud-olive-oil/). That means people may purchase and consume seafood and fish that’s not what they think it is. The group looked at 200 studies from 55 countries for their report, which was released on Wednesday. The report authors say evidence of seafood fraud was discovered throughout supply chains worldwide. In the United States alone, the researchers found an average seafood fraud rate of nearly 30%, and 58% of samples of fraudulent seafood were species that could cause health complications. Some types of seafood are supposed to be screened for potential toxins or allergens and if they are mislabeled that process may not happen. “People purchasing seafood to eat are the ones most impacted by this type of activity from a health and sustainability standpoint,” says Kimberly Warner, report author and senior scientist at Oceana. “But it also harms everyone in the supply chain who is playing by the rules. The person going through the effort to catch fish legally and label correctly is undercut by the fraudulent practices.” The report authors highlight some country-specific offenses that are particularly egregious. In Italy, for example, 82% of the 200 samples of grouper, perch and swordfish that were tested were mislabeled and close to half of the substituted fish were types of fish that are at risk for extinction. A study of Brussels restaurants found 98% of 69 bluefin tuna dishes tested were a different kind of fish. In a Santa Monica, California restaurant, two sushi chefs were found to be selling whale meat as tuna. Asian catfish was found to be the type of fish most often sold as a different, higher value type of fish, the report shows. Warner and her coauthors found in their review that Asian catfish was sold as 18 different types of fish. **MORE**: [Your Fridge May Be Full Of Fake Food](http://time.com/4412535/food-fraud-olive-oil/) Oceana is pushing for more regulation from the U.S. government on the issue. President Obama has [made a commitment to addressing seafood fraud](http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/ia/iuu/taskforce.html), and has proposed a rule that would require more traceability—the ability to figure out where the fish is coming from—for 13 types of seafood that are at a particularly higher risk for fraud. Warner says Oceana would like to see a final rule that encompasses all seafood. Steps taken by the European Union to combat seafood fraud appear to be working. The E.U. has pushed for transparency in the seafood industry, and has experienced a drop in overall fraud from 23% in 2011 to 8% in 2015. To ensure people buy the fish they want, Warner recommends asking grocers and waiters more questions about where their fish originates. “Some grocers provide traceable fish, and if people ask, hopefully managers will learn people want to know where their seafood comes from,” she says. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4480426/fish-fraud-is-absolutely-rampant-new-report/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4480426/fish-fraud-is-absolutely-rampant-new-report/"},"headline":"Fish Fraud Is Absolutely Rampant: New Report","datePublished":"2016-09-07T07:00:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:25:08.562Z","description":"There’s a good chance you’re not getting what you think you’re getting","url":"https://time.com/4480426/fish-fraud-is-absolutely-rampant-new-report/","keywords":["fish","seafood"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdd618d49ccfe077d/6988a4f8196cf4b8e303d15b/fish.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdd618d49ccfe077d/6988a4f8196cf4b8e303d15b/fish.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Packaged Fresh Fish","caption":"Packaged Fresh Fish","creditText":"Shana Novak—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/fish/","name":"fish"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4480426/fish-fraud-is-absolutely-rampant-new-report/","name":"Fish Fraud Is Absolutely Rampant: New Report"}}]}] ```