DNA 'Barcodes' Surface Fishy Imposters on Menus
Researchers Use Gene Segments to Settle Restaurant Mysteries, Check Stream Quality and Take Inventory of All Living Things
Robert Lee Hotz
WSJ
Researchers using a new DNA test recently discovered that fish ordered from menus in New York and Denver might not always be the species served. Sampling the fare at 31 sushi bars, scientists at the American Museum of Natural History found that customers who ordered tuna were sometimes served a cheaper substitute, an endangered species or a fish banned in several countries as a health hazard.
Scaled, sliced and hand-rolled, the eight most marketable species in the tuna genus Thunnus are prime candidates for honest error -- or bait and switch. On a plate, these wild tuna are almost identical, but sushi lovers especially prize the three species of bluefin tuna, whose annual catch was sharply curtailed last month. To identify the premium filets, the museum researchers singled out a short piece of genetic code naturally found in fish cells that, for the first time, can reliably label each of the eight species like a grocery store's inventory tag.
The researchers call it a DNA barcode.
More than a way to monitor menu mistakes, the development of the barcode arises from the need to tighten enforcement of regulations on tuna fishing. Regulators had no way to accurately identify which species of tuna had been sold, as required by an international convention on endangered species.
(Continued here.)
Robert Lee Hotz
WSJ
Researchers using a new DNA test recently discovered that fish ordered from menus in New York and Denver might not always be the species served. Sampling the fare at 31 sushi bars, scientists at the American Museum of Natural History found that customers who ordered tuna were sometimes served a cheaper substitute, an endangered species or a fish banned in several countries as a health hazard.
Scaled, sliced and hand-rolled, the eight most marketable species in the tuna genus Thunnus are prime candidates for honest error -- or bait and switch. On a plate, these wild tuna are almost identical, but sushi lovers especially prize the three species of bluefin tuna, whose annual catch was sharply curtailed last month. To identify the premium filets, the museum researchers singled out a short piece of genetic code naturally found in fish cells that, for the first time, can reliably label each of the eight species like a grocery store's inventory tag.
The researchers call it a DNA barcode.
More than a way to monitor menu mistakes, the development of the barcode arises from the need to tighten enforcement of regulations on tuna fishing. Regulators had no way to accurately identify which species of tuna had been sold, as required by an international convention on endangered species.
(Continued here.)
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