One in five fish products is a fraud

Do you think you are buying canned tuna or wild Pacific salmon? That may not be true at all. According to the latest report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, as many as 20 percent of all fish and seafood are sold under false labels. Can these frauds be prevented in any way?

An ocean of dishonest opportunities

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, has prepared a review of detected cases of food fraud in the fisheries and aquaculture sector. Altogether, this market includes more than 12,000 freshwater and marine species, and its value is estimated at around 195 billion dollars. According to the authors of the report, it is precisely this diversity and the complex international supply chain that open the door to abuses threatening consumers worldwide.

What does FAO understand by food fraud? The definition is broad and includes, among other things, product adulteration by adding inauthentic ingredients, counterfeiting, mislabeling, as well as selling food products outside their intended markets. For us, fish lovers, the most dangerous situations are of course those in which something completely different from what we ordered ends up on our plate.

Do not trust the restaurant menu

The highest number of fraud cases was identified in the restaurant sector, where it is very easy to sell fish in disguise. Breading, spices, or sauce easily blur the taste differences between species. Instead of crab meat, for example, you may receive surimi, a paste made from minced white fish meat and colored with artificial dyes. Studies show that as many as 30 percent of seafood and fish in the catering sector are misnamed, and in European schools and hospitals this rate reaches as much as 50 percent.

FAO analysts also discovered irregularities on supermarket shelves. Farmed salmon is sold as wild salmon, generating significantly higher profits. Raw tuna is often enhanced with carbon monoxide or other chemicals, including even formaldehyde. Fresh fish have very often been previously thawed, and Mediterranean shrimp come from Southeast Asia. In short, we are paying not only for a different product, but usually also for one of lower value and questionable origin.

Fish fraud threatens health and ecosystems

In EU catering chains, noble fish species are often replaced with pangasius, whose white meat is low in calories but may be heavily contaminated with heavy metals and antibiotics. Shrimp imitations made from properly shaped fish paste or starch-based mixtures may contain soy allergens or egg proteins, about which consumers are not informed.

Substitute species may also be a source of parasites and pathogenic microorganisms, and their meat should never be eaten raw due to the risk of infection with anisakiasis, listeriosis, or vibriosis. However, it is difficult to follow this precaution when a person does not know what they are eating.

Fraud in the fish industry harms not only consumers but also the environment. Illegally caught Atlantic bluefin tuna is sometimes sold as yellowfin tuna or albacore. Other species are caught in quantities exceeding permitted limits, and the surplus is sold through informal channels, often without complying with food safety rules. Such practices lead to the depletion of fishing grounds and undermine the balance of aquatic ecosystems.

According to the authors of the report, consumers must be aware of these irregularities so that they begin to demand their rights more vocally. The fish industry can be supported by modern technologies such as portable X ray devices, DNA analysis, infrared spectroscopy, or nuclear magnetic resonance, used to detect fraud and verify product origin. Raising standards is necessary if we are to start thinking about fish again as a healthy food category.

---

Source:

FAO. 2026. Food fraud in the fisheries and aquaculture sector. Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper, No. 742. Rome.