Community Magazine August 2017

28 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE DAVE GORDON When you order a plate of sushi at a restaurant, you expect to get what is advertised on the menu. You believe, for example, that a red snapper roll will be made with red snapper. As it turns out, however, that may be far from the truth. I n actuality, your food may be made of something else entirely, because someone wanted to save money. According to a nationwide study done by Oceana, sushi – as well as other fish varieties ordered at restaurants – may be “swapped” up to 87 percent of the time. Cod may be swapped with catfish, and white tuna may be escolar, a fish that is not kosher. Just seven of the 120 samples of red snapper purchased nationwide were actually red snapper - and six out of ten times the “tuna” was not in fact tuna, DNA tests showed. In the two-year study that began in 2010, Oceana collected more than 1,200 fish samples from 674 retail outlets in 21 states. Forty percent of fish analyzed in New York State were mislabeled. SECRETS of the FOOD INDUSTRY REVEALED The Surprising Truth About What is in the Food You Eat