I was flipping through yahoo this morning, and came across this somewhat horrifying story about mislabeled seafood in New York City.
Now, with the disclaimer that I don't believe that this 'Oceana' is a 100% unbiased research group in cases like this, I am not the least bit surprised that something like this is going on....but it is more widespread than I thought it might be.
I'm not picking on New York either, because the article says things are even worse in Boston and Los Angeles.
The somewhat surprising stat is that the smaller stores were WAY worse offenders than major chains. When I think 'smaller', I tend to think 'fancier', because that has been my experience here in the Northwest. I forgot that the one thing a larger chain has going for it is better management, and the need to protect a regional or even nationwide reputation.
I'd be kind of curious to see how a investigation like this would do in Seattle. Folks here in the Northwest tend to be a fairly 'sophisticated' when it comes to food. Speaking for myself, I've caught halibut, cod, ling cod and salmon. I know what those fish look like, and would recognize it under most circumstances. Cod would be the easiest to fool me on.
Now, where you could fool me is with bottom fish, and shell fish. I couldn't tell you the difference between flounder and sole when they are swimming, let alone when it's a fillet in a cold case. Also, while I can pick out a scallop from a clam from an oyster, I couldn't tell the difference between a Manilla and a Littleneck.
The only really good news is that so far there hasn't been a story about people selling goat and calling it Angus.
I've had goat; it's quite good when prepared properly. It has it's own taste, and no one could mistake it for beef.
ReplyDeleteWasn't trying to run down goat, I'd be more than willing to try it. More trying to make the point that it's tough to confuse goat and beef, and pork. Might have some trouble telling veal from lamb.
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