Paper calls for standardisation of naming of seafood species
Few South African consumers are aware of the fact that Argentine hake is sometimes passed off as South African hake. Or that cheaper farmed Japanese amberjack is sometimes sold as local, wild-caught yellowtail, and that an unknown species, big-scale mackerel, is sometimes labelled kabeljou.
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These and other seafood sleights of hand have been highlighted in a paper published in the January 2015 edition of Marine Policy. The paper, titled 'Towards a standard nomenclature for seafood species to promote more sustainable seafood trade in South Africa', sheds light on the present legislative gaps in which seafood mislabelling is allowed to prevail.
The paper, co-authored by Jaco Barendse from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University's Sustainability Research Unit, and WWF seafood industry liaison officer Junaid Francis, calls for the standardisation of the naming of seafood species on the South African market to protect the seafood industry and to prevent further fraud.
Recent steps
It also highlights recent steps taken to address the problem, including the setting up of a working group to establish a standard list of South African seafood names approved by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS).
The authors argue that mislabelling is being used as a way to sell illegally caught or specially protected species, whereby consumers can unknowingly contribute to the demise of a rare fish species, such as red steenbras. This is often done by using broad collective names such as 'red fish' or 'line fish' without providing any further details.
Mislabelling of fish and fishery products is recognised as a serious threat to the sustainability of global seafood markets, with an ever-increasing number of published cases of fraud, including in the United States, Canada, Italy and Ireland, they say. The trend is mirrored on the South African market, where two previous studies have detected mislabelling rates of between 20-50 %.
The paper calls for industry, NGOs and government to work together to address this fraudulent practice by developing a standard list of seafood names.
Inconsistent rules
"The current South African labelling and naming regulations fall short of protecting consumers against mislabelling," Barendse says. "Some of the issues include inconsistent rules, and the absence of a single policy or document or regulatory authority that determines which trade name should be associated with which specific species. Luckily, we were able to draw on the experiences of other countries and so put forward a set of suggestions for South Africa to improve the local situation."
While engagement with this standard list will be voluntary, Francis is optimistic: "Through this collaborative, multi-stakeholder approach we hope that a robust standard will be developed which will bring improved transparency to seafood naming by providing consumers with credible information about their seafood, and the assurance that the name presented on the product label accurately reflects the species on offer."
