ABSTRACT
Seafood mislabeling is a widespread problem even in Europe where the food market is highly regulated. In the present study, we analyzed the accuracy of seafood labeling in five Portuguese supermarket chains through DNA barcode. Our results show that approximately 19% of examined samples were mislabeled and that the consumer’s trust is misplaced. As mislabeling was greater in invertebrate species, we recommend that future studies led by government agencies and scientists aiming to test labeling accuracy should expand from finfish to include invertebrates such as crustaceans and bivalves.
Funding
This work was funded by FEDER funds through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors–COMPETE and by National Funds through FCT-Foundation for Science and Technology under the Project EXPL/MAR-BIO/1034/2012 and FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-029939. RX and DJH were funded by IF-FCT research contracts IF/00359/2015 and IF/01627/2014. DJH and RX are partially funded by Project “Biodiversity, Ecology and Global Change” cofinanced by North Portugal Regional Operational Programme 2007/2013 (ON.2–O Novo Norte), under the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).