Low mislabeling rates indicate marked improvements in European seafood market operations

www.frontiersinecology.org © The Ecological Society of America I little more than a decade, the rapid and widespread use of genetic identification protocols has transformed food authenticity testing from a niche area into a highly influential biotechnological application worldwide (Ogden 2008; Yancy et al. 2008; Lou 2015). Although livestock and agricultural products remain the main focus of certification schemes and trading standards controls (European Commission’s Database of Origin & Registration; http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/quality/door/list.html), the most notable changes in perception and attitude have been observed with seafood. Over half the seafood intended for direct human consumption is still “hunted and gathered” from wild communities and populations (FAO 2014), over which humans cannot exert the control afforded in the case of farmed organisms. Seafood identification investigations across the world unveiled a presumably long-standing lack of transparency in trade operations (Stanziani 2007), prompting extensive media coverage (Mariani et al. 2014), swaying public opinion, alerting conservation groups (Warner et al. 2013), and urging policy makers and governments to find rapid and effective solutions (FSAI 2012; FDA 2014). Despite these developments, most seafood identification studies conducted so far tended to have a relatively narrow focus, either adopting a regional slant (eg Miller and Mariani 2010) or targeting specific products and/or conservation concerns (eg Logan et al. 2008). Sampling effort and design of these studies also lacked the scope and rigor required to realistically represent the status of seafood authenticity in an entire sector of a major economy. Here, we present results of the largest seafood authenticity investigation conducted to date, spanning six European countries and nine different seafood products/species (Table 1). The analysis was designed to determine the current level of labeling accuracy in wild fisheries products in the European Union (EU) mainstream seafood retail sector, and to examine labeling accuracy in the context of EU regulations, the public perception of seafood authenticity, and similar recent multi-state, multi-species surveys conducted in North America (Warner et al. 2013; FDA 2014; Khaksar et al. 2015).