Sushi Science ... Tuna may not be what you think

So we all know we’re not supposed to eat endangered species, and we all hope we’re eating what we think we’re eating. Well, according to a study performed by Columbia University and the Museum of Natural History and recently published in the scientific journal PLoS One that may not always be the case, especially when it comes to our delectable little friend the Tuna!

Using “DNA Barcoding” (I’ll skip the explanation for now but if you want one feel free to ask – I am a Biologist, after all) they identified 68 samples of sushi from restaurants in NYC and Denver. The results?

Nineteen restaurant establishments were unable to clarify or misrepresented what species they sold. Five out of nine samples sold as a variant of “white tuna” were not albacore (T. alalunga), but escolar (Lepidocybium flavorunneum), a gempylid species banned for sale in Italy and Japan due to health concerns. Nineteen samples were northern bluefin tuna (T. thynnus) or the critically endangered southern bluefin tuna (T. maccoyii), though nine restaurants that sold these species did not state these species on their menus.

Yup, that’s right – over 50% of Tuna that you eat may be a fraud or just poached out of the ocean illegally. While I’ve never really paid attention to the species listed on the menu, perhaps we should … although I also doubt that their distributors would tell the restaurants if they were selling them illegal tuna. And shouldn’t it be easier to catch a species that’s not critically endangered anyway? I mean, there’s going to be a heck of a lot more of them… Eh, what do I know?

Oh, and for the record, escolar, one of the fish misrepresented as tuna, can actually give you the shits. Hope I don’t accidentally get too much of that in my diet.

While I don’t plan on freaking out and ceasing all intake of Tuna anytime in the near future, I’m sure this will stick in the back of my mind when I think about ordering it.

/CH