Let FDA fish for fraud

Something's awfully fishy at the seafood counter. Using new technology that makes it easy to read gene sequences in a fish's flesh, researchers on both sides of the Atlantic are finding that 20 percent to 25 percent of the seafood they check is bogus.

It's fish all right. Just not the fish you paid for. Shark, for instance, is sometimes passed off as costlier swordfish. Farmed salmon is palmed off as pricier wild-caught. Farm-raised tilapia is substituted for a number of other white fish that can be priced more profitably.

Long Islanders are fortunate often to have the option of buying whole fish caught in our waters. Otherwise, consumers risk being deceived into overpaying, and mislabeling undermines people's efforts to eat only fish that are sustainably harvested, since it's so hard to tell just what you are buying. Fish fraud is all too easy because 84 percent of the seafood sold in the United States is imported, and once a fish is filleted, even experts can have a hard time identifying it.

What's needed is better tracking of seafood and more inspection all along the line. Unfortunately, federal seafood oversight is fragmented and inadequate. In April, for example, the Government Accountability Office faulted the Food and Drug Administration, saying FDA seafood safety inspection compares badly with the more extensive efforts of the European Union.

As to fish fraud, the FDA has the gene-reading equipment. Now it's time to put it to good use.