Sushi mislabeling appears to be trending downward in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., according to recent findings from a decade-long Loyola Marymount University (LMU) study.
The study, which was published in the journal Food Control, found a 65 percent drop in mislabeling rates among restaurants participating in the Los Angeles Seafood Monitoring Project, with which LMU is a partner.
Additionally, LMU researchers recorded a 19 percent dip in the average rate of mislabeled sushi samples collected across Los Angeles over a 10-year period.
“Never has a study tracked mislabeling for so long, nor has a study been able to show a significant change due to intervention,” said Demian Willette, lead author of the study and associate professor of biology at LMU's Frank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering. “Our findings illustrate that awareness and intervention are critical to our ongoing efforts to reduce fraudulent labeling in seafood.”
Sushi Nozawa Group (SUGARFISH/KazuNori/Nozawa Bar) Co-founder and CEO Jerry A. Greenberg cited the collaboration among Los Angeles Seafood Monitoring Project participants as a big contributor to the mislabeling decline.
“This success was achieved because people across disciplines got together to fix a problem that we all saw as solvable,” Greenberg said. “Positive change happens when restaurants, government, and researchers sit down at the same table and work toward solutions.”
The study’s authors support Greenberg’s theory.
“We found mislabeling was three-fold lower among project-partnering restaurants than other restaurants,” the authors wrote. “This difference was statistically significant, illustrating the combination of project partnering and implementation of recommendations was most impactful on reducing mislabeling rates.”
Back in 2012, Willette, alongside LMU and UCLA researchers, embarked on the mislabeling exploration, utilizing DNA markers to analyze seafood samples taken over a four-year period from 26 Los Angeles-based restaurants. They also tested samples taken over the course of one year from three high-end grocery stores.
Nine key sushi species were targeted by the team, including red snapper, yellowtail, halibut, mackerel, salmon, and four varieties of tuna: albacore, yellowfin, bigeye, and bluefin.
In 2017, the researchers published their initial findings in the journal Conservation Biology, which alleged that 47 percent of all L.A. sushi samples taken from 2012 through 2015 were mislabeled.
“Half of what we’re buying isn’t what we think it is,” Paul Barber, a UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and the 2017 study’s senior author, said at the time. “Fish fraud could be accidental, but I suspect that in some cases the mislabeling is very much intentional, though it’s hard to know where in the supply chain it begins. I suspected we would find some mislabeling, but I didn’t think it would be as high as we found in some species.”
Following the release of the study, the Los Angeles Seafood Monitoring Project was formed.
“The multi-year initiative aimed to improve seafood literacy and combat mislabeling by leveraging evidence-based science and molecular genetic DNA testing of seafood sold by restaurants, sushi venues, grocery stores, and seafood processors in the Los Angeles area,” LMU said.
The 2024 results mark a positive development on the mislabeling front; the study authors noted. However, they added that “further reductions in the most egregious cases (of seafood mislabeling) are achievable.”
The researchers pointed to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) addition in recent years of the Japanese name madai as an accepted market name for sea bream, and kanpachi for amberjack, as examples of where to focus.
“Current FDA guidelines only permit the use of English names for most of this study’s targeted fish types,” the authors said. “We encourage regulators to consider the addition of additional Japanese names as accepted names, which may help reduce mislabeling attributed to being lost in translation.”
