Brussels, 04/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - Consumers may be reassured. In the European Union, only 6% of white fish are incorrectly labelled, the Commission said on Friday 4 December.
That low percentage represents the extent of non-compliant samples found in the first European coordinated control plan, the result of which have just been published. The plan, implemented last summer with the agreement of all member states, tested 4,000 white fish samples of 150 different species, taken from all stages of the food production chain.
The mislabelling of 6% is not necessarily the result of fraud, the Commission points out, noting that it is for the member states to determine, on a case-by-case basis, the causes and motives of the incorrect labelling.
The most numerous non-compliances were discovered in products labelled as Atlantic cod and different species of hake - but these were also the species most often sampled.
When correlated with the number of samples taken per species or group of species, mislabelling was most commonly discovered in grouper, common sole and yellowfin sole.
Pangasius was only identified as a substitute species in a few cases (3%, while earlier reports often implicated pangasius in mislabelled white fish products).
These preliminary results do not pre-judge the final outcome of the investigation, the Commission states. It has announced that it will carry out a series of fact-finding missions, beginning this month, on the labelling and traceability of fishery products.
Of the samples taken, 62% came from unprocessed products and 38% from processed. The distribution of non-compliant samples was even between the two categories. 45% of samples were taken from retailers and 3% at points of import, with the remainder evenly divided between markets/traders, cold stores, processing establishments and mass caterers. There was a slightly higher percentage of non-compliant samples taken at points of import, from retailers and from mass caterers. In some cases, the laboratories taking part in the investigation were unable to identify the species replacing the fish labelled.
A recent study by the OCEANA association, which works to protect the oceans, revealed that a third of the fish served in restaurants close to the European institutions in Brussels was incorrectly labelled (see EUROPE 11423). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)