Here’s the catch: Store labels telling fish tales – AG

New York supermarkets are swimming with mislabeled fish, a new state report says.

Labels on 27% percent of fish sold in the state are fish tales, says the study overseen by state Attorney General Barbara Underwood.

Lemon sole is the most likely to be mislabeled — 87.5% of it is really some other fish, says the study.

Other sham species sold by supermarkets include red snapper — which is often lane snapper, which has higher level of mercury.

Grouper is also subject to mislabeling. And choosy fish buyers who try to avoid seek wild salmon are often sold less sustainable farmed salmon instead.

The state cast a wide net, buying sham fish at 155 stores run by 29 chains.

It sent its purchases to the Ocean Genome Legacy Center, a lab run by Northeastern University in Massachusetts.

Stew Leonard’s, Uncle Giuseppe’s, Foodtown, Food Bazaar, and Western Beef sell lots of fishy fish — more than half of the seafood the state bought at those stores was wrongly labeled, Underwood’s study found.

“It’s clear that seafood fraud isn’t just a fluke – it’s rampant across New York,” said Underwood.

Supermarkets selling wrongly labeled fish will find themselves on the hook by enforcement action from Underwood’s office.