Washington, D.C.-based seafood distributor ProFish is the first company to test a new quick-turnaround DNA test kit for blue crab.
InstantLabs in Baltimore this week rolled out its InstantID Atlantic Blue Crab DNA Test, which produces DNA results in around two hours. Next year, it will add InstantID kits for catfish, snapper, grouper and tilapia.
On the heels of Oceana’s study that found around one-third of seafood sold in U.S. stores is mislabeled, along with “rumors” that Asian blue-swimming crab is sometimes substituted for domestic blue crab, there is a market for cost-effective DNA testing, Steven Guterman, CEO of InstantLabs, told SeafoodSource.
“When we met with the U.S. Commerce Department, they were estimating that somewhere between 15 percent and 50 percent of seafood is mislabeled, depending on the species you are dealing with,” Guterman said. Since the results from most DNA tests take around a week to produce, “that is not really going to be able to combat seafood fraud."
InstantLabs uses a portable Hunter Real-Time PCR Instrument, so distributors, government agencies, supermarkets and others can test seafood DNA at the “point of need,” Guterman said. InstantLabs is developing tests for catfish, snapper, grouper and tilapia, because the Commerce Department identified those species as the ones most often substituted in the U.S. marketplace.
InstantID also is a “fraction” of the cost of typical DNA sequencing tests, which cost USD 100 (EUR 79.75) or more each, according to Guterman, who declined to reveal the product’s price tag.
ProFish wants to use the technology to “make sure the end user gets what they are paying for,” said John Rorapaugh, director of sustainable initiatives for ProFish. “In restaurants, people want to say they feature ‘Maryland crab cakes.’ A very small percentage is Maryland crab, since the demand is 100 times more than what Maryland produces. We want to make sure people don’t misrepresent that."
The technology is also needed to prove whether a species is catfish, swai or basa, and whether it is a U.S. or imported product, according to Rorapaugh.
Rorapaugh says the quick DNA test is a “game changer” for the distributor, along with the top restaurants — including Wolfgang Puck’s Spago — retailers and foodservice management firms that ProFish supplies.
“The first conversation you are going to have going with a new chef or another customer is comparing yourself against other vendors. You have to make sure you are comparing the same two products, which the other vendor may be offering cheaper. Unless there is a tractability component there, you really don’t know,” Rorapaugh said.
Plus, the “real big changes” in sustainability and traceability come when major corporations get on board. “Sodexho, Hilton Management, and others compete against each other. They not only sell their efficiency, but also their messages, such as sustainability. In the next couple of years, traceablity is going to be the big [message],” Rorapaugh said.
