Freshly Farmed

When did "fresh" become a euphemism for "wild" with respect to fish? This interesting article in the Seattle Post Intelligencer looks at some of the often misleading labeling in the world of seafood --in this instance, a farmed king salmon is being displayed as "fresh king", which to many unsuspecting shoppers will lead to an assumption that it was wild-caught just hours ago!

Clever marketing will often result in sales of otherwise unmarketable species. Slimehead was not a popular menu item until it became known as orange roughy. Similarly, the Patagonian toothfish sounds much tastier when renamed the Chilean seabass. Spiny dogfish, a small shark species, finds its way into fish and chips when it is re-sold as rock cod or rock salmon.

As of April 4, 2005 Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requires that all U.S. seafood is labeled to show both country of origin and method of production (farmed or wild-caught).  Unfortunately, processed seafood is exempt from these labeling requirements and consequently only about half of the seafood in our grocery stores has a COOL label.

Remember, seafood lovers on the go can also use a cell phone or other device with Internet access to check seafood recommendations on our specialized mobile pages at www.seafoodwatch.com