Two Hingham Restaurants Part of Seafood Mislabeling Investigation

If you think that going to a Hingham seafood restaurant on the docks means that the fish you eat was caught just outside your window, think again.

With advances in freezing technology and transportation could mean that that wild-caught striped bass you thought you ate could actually be a farm-raised fish shipped from Asia. Or the traditional label of "scrod" referring to haddock caught in Cape Cod Bay, is often not fresh haddock, but frozen Pacific cod from Alaska, according to an investigation by the Boston Globe. The investigation by two Globe reporters helped by a DNA laboratory in Canada found that 48 percent of fish sampled in the survey were misidentified of the 183 fish samples collected. That includes one Hingham restaurant, which labeled Haddock as Cod. A second restaurant, and Hingham market, the correctly labeled their fish.

Health and safety are major concerns for the correct identification of seafood. One popular substitute, escolar, is often labeled as white tuna on menus, particularly at sushi restaurants. Escolar, an oily white fish from Asia, can cause severe gastrointestinal problems because of the type of oil. It's often known as "ex-lax fish."

But escolar is not part of the tuna family and should not be sold with that label, according to the FDA’s online database of acceptable market names for seafood. Moreover, the agency advises against the sale of escolar in the United States because of its potential health risks. Some chefs and food bloggers have suggested that people are most likely to get sick after eating 4 ounces or more, but there have been reports of diners becoming ill after consuming smaller portions.

In Hingham, Alma Nove told the Globe that it substituted haddock when cod is not available.

Massachusetts has the fourth busiest seafood industry in the U.S. (Alaska is the largest), from fishing boats to processing plants. Hingham isn't high on the local list, but it's small fishing fleet still sells its fresh catch to local restaurants and processing plants. The custom of fish markets getting in whole fish and carving them up for sale has long since disappeared except in a few cases. 

Type of Seller

Graph from Boston.com