Authors:

Rahaf Hamid

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About Paper:

In the United States, it is reported that most of the fish bought is mislabeled 25 to 70 percent of the time. Because 84 percent of the fish consumed in the U.S. is imported and the FDA inspects only 2 percent of imports, seafood mislabeling remains a significant concern. Red snapper is one of the most popular fish that gets mislabeled. The purpose of this experiment was to test whether fish sold as red snapper, yellowtail, Alaskan cod, and catfish were accurately labeled. We hypothesized that a portion of the fish samples collected from sushi restaurants and grocery stores would be mislabeled. To test this hypothesis, DNA was isolated from fish tissue samples, and the mitochondrial CO! gene was amplified using PCR. This was done to obtain enough DNA for gel electrophoresis and sequencing. Sequencing analysis using Geneious was then used to determine the species identity of each sample. Among the six fish samples examined, only two were accurately labeled, while the remaining four were identified as different fish species. These results indicate that seafood mislabeling occurred in the majority of samples tested. This finding suggests that while not all fish sold in the United States are necessarily mislabeled, mislabeling appears to be common. This study demonstrates how DNA analysis can be used to verify species identity and detect food mislabeling.

Source:

Chicago Area Undergraduate Research Symposium

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Co-authors:

Rahaf Hamid