Fish fraud: Diners getting caught up in a net of mislabelled seafood

Are you codding me? False labelling is much more common in fish than with meat, fruit, vegetables or other kinds of food, experts say. — Photo: Mick Tsikas/AAP/dpa

Around one in five fish and seafood items sold around the world could be fake in some way, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which says shady practices such as false labelling and passing off vegetable-based products as the real thing are “widespread.”

“There is no official estimate of how prevalent fraud is in the $195 billion global fisheries and aquaculture sector, but empirical studies suggest that 20% of the trade may be subject to some type of fraud,” the FAO explained in a February statement, warning that when it comes to dining out, the risk could be more like 30%.