Seafood Freakshow: 59% of Tuna Mislabeled, Fake Tuna Linked to ‘Anal Oil Leakage’
Do you enjoy the taste of tuna? If you answered yes to that question, there’s a very large chance that you actually enjoy the taste of many bizarre and exotic imposter ‘fake tuna’ fish types that have been peddled and mislabeled by the seafood industry and restaurants alike — even a ‘snake mackerel’ fish linked to side effects like anal oil leakage.
The new genetic testing campaign kickstarted and funded by the nonprofit organization known as Oceana, a group whose mission statement involves protecting the world’s oceans, reveals that 59% of tuna is not only mislabeled but is almost entirely compromised of a fish once banned by the FDA. Sushi restaurants were the worst offenders by far, but the tests spanned throughout restaurants and grocery stores alike. Altogether, the findings oust over half of tuna fish as fraudulent.
As you can see for yourself in the report by Oceana, the numerical breakdown of tuna fraud (especially ‘white tuna’) paints a picture of just how far companies will go to deliver rubbish products and deceive the consumer:
- Between restaurants and grocery stories in the US alike, 59% overall of the tuna tested was definitely not tuna as found by genetic testing.
- Sushi restaurants had the worst record, with every single restaurant’s ‘tuna’ tested in major cities like DC, Chicago, Austin, and New York City coming back as fraudulent.
- A whopping 84% of ‘white tuna’ was actually escolar, the snake mackerel fish that causes oily anal leakage and was banned by the FDA until 1992. It is still banned in Japan, Italy, and requires warning labels regarding the leaky discharge in Canada, Sweden, and Denmark.
Oceana also offers a graphical breakdown:
Rampant Food Mystery Ingredients | From Fake Tuna to Horsemeat
The blatant lack of knowledge regarding the actual ingredients in so-called ‘tuna’ products is reminiscent of recent food ingredient disasters such as the Burger King horsemeat incident, in which Burger King was forced to admit that consumers had been eating either horse or donkey meat in their juicy Whoppers for who knows how long.
An admission that not only grossed a lot of people out and emotionally touched a lot of horse lovers, but brought up a great consideration: we really don’t even know what we’re putting into our mouths.
We’ve even seen rampant food fraud in the seafood industry before, with food geneticists revealing a large percentage of the entire market is actually filled with mislabeled fish. Oftentimes, it becomes an even greater concern when entering into the realm of health. Many ‘wild-caught’ fish varieties are scams and are actually heavily processed, with the FDA inspecting only around 2% of seafood imports.
We know there exists a number of serious additives that lurk in our food supply like MSG and various neurotoxic food coloring ingredients, but the fact of the matter is it even comes down to the very food product itself.
Many of you probably do not consumer tuna for a number of reasons, such as the likelihood that it was harvested from Fukushima-touched Pacific waters, or perhaps because it contains mercury or was taken from the oil-plagued Gulf of Mexico. Regardless of the reason, I am sure you see the validity in highlighting this information for consumers.
When we can’t even be sure what we’re eating, even down to the very base product itself, we have a very serious problem for consumers. A problem that I don’t think producers seem to care about given that this fraud is so prevalent — and it is undoubtedly a culinary fraud that expands far beyond the seafood industry.
Additional sources:
Please, what does the FDA do except steal our money ? This and the beaver butt glads, AKA raspberry natural flavoring . I'd say, the FDA is a load of leaky anal glands.
Ya Yuuuk!!!!
There’s no accountability people need to know!!! I’m going to submit this to another news site more people need to know about. Thanks!
I have been experiencing this mysterious and uncomfortable symptom for eight months and have been at a loss to as to the cause until now. For the last year or more I have been buying Great Value tuna from Wal-Mart for 59 cents, and that may be why they can sell it so cheaply. This makes me furious!
this is not a real comment. butt (!) it's ok, for it disses walmart 😉
Are there specific brands of tuna we can trust?
it is scary that these companies seem to operate in full sight of oversight agencies.
No doubt it is a daunting task to follow through with a food manufacturing, but it seems like there is no effort at all to stop this sort of thing.
The FDA is being petitioned now to allow milk products to add artificial sweeteners like aspartame, without adding it to the label. The milk industry says it is doing this for our own good – to help us see the nutrition in the product. Seriously?
We need better ways to get our (people – not corporations) voices heard and acknowledged.
Canada’s Prime Minister has harmed Canadians in a major way by decreasing food inspectors and watering down regulations in Health Canada which should be the first to uphold food safety.
It is left to the private industries to tell consumers everything is just fine . . . we cannot even get labelling of GM foods, nor country origins of food – a terrible situation. As well, fish farms are a major problem. Norway farms fish on our Pacific Coast, yet I read that in their homeland it is not allowed.
So, we must educate our people and demand government comply with our rights to healthy food/water/air and soil.
Let me know what brand of tuna is good and safe or if all are garbage so I do not buy any anymore. Right now I am vegetarian since a little over a year and basically only eat veggies & fruits, no meats, no dairy and do also include all kind beans, so what is there left to eat? Rice is no good, and anything produced or packaged in a factory is Not good either. All have added poisions and crap in them. Not much good food we can eat anymore. We have to start planting our own foods in the backyard or balcony. I live in apt. and going to plant in pots tomatoes, green pepers, cilantro, wish could plant bananas, and other fruit. I want to eat healthy good foods, not garbage full of crap. It is getting worse by the day. If could would move to country and plant my own veggies, beans, and fruits.
Organic sprouted foods are excellent. Sprouting changes the grain. So nutritious!
The FDA wants you to eat those GMO’s. They cause diabetes, cancer, etc. The FDA then wants you to take the drugs to combat this. A vicious circle that is government. Go figure a plan for healthcare…. They need to get rid of the FDA… ASA!!!!!!!!!!
PS… for those who do not understand… the FDA also approves the drugs. The FDA needs to go away, tax dollars that are going into Monsanto's hands and Pharmaceuticals. They both feed on each other. Total curruption of every living and breathing enttity here in the US! Just look at the honeybee. Europe has banned our chems there. Can we stop it here???
Debbie, i couldn't have said it better myself! What needs to happen first is public awareness! It wasnt until last year that I began questioning the food i was putting into my mouth. I was taking a nutrition class at the college when my instructor assigned a documentary to watch on Monsanto..the most corrupt and evil corporation. It disturbs and saddens me on every level. I live in AZ so gardening is nelocalxt to impossible in this climate and organic foods are sparsely offered in our local grocery stores. A change needs to be made but public awareness is what will make it happen.
FDA: the most evil arm of government in the US!!
The FDA was a good reporter of evil things that is until Reagon took office and fired the then head of the FDA, Because He wouldn't approve of Aspartame when it first came on the market. Reagon was bought out by big pharma. He was our worst president!
These stats are for the USA, would be interesting to know similar for the UK. There's been a growing movement of customers back towards farmers' markets and local-produce shops. Fresh fish is expensive but at least you can see it on the counter before buying. We've enjoyed decades of supermarket convenience but the trust has clearly been betrayed……time to go local!
The FDA is too busy running down people who sell dangerous products like fresh milk and raw apricot seeds, or amish farmers who help their neighbors slaughter their own chickens to worry about fake and toxic food. Besides, industrial food ponies up big bucks to keep these guys off their backs. Too bad for us. At least you won't have anyone forcing raw milk down your throat at gunpoint – isn't that a relief? You can go back to comfortably eating your donkeyburgers and fake tuna. Oh, and they are now considering letting the dairy industry sneak aspartame into their milk products without labeling them – isn't that 'sweet'? And doesn't that just make you wonder what else they 'allow' into our food without labeling – you just gotta know the right people.
Once you connect the dots you'll see what's going on. Most of the heads of government agencies have been appointed by Obama, hence Monsanto controls the FDA and USDA. And this goes for most of the other agencies if not all of them. Where do you suppose Obama got most of his campaign funds? Froooooooooooooom Satin? Pretty close.
And the public doesn't know what's going on because the sources where they get their information and knowledge are all owned by six corporations who have ties with each other as well as all of the corporate industries. Even NPR (National Public Radio) gets funding from them, like Monsanto and Bank of America.
So this is why major DEREGULATION in all or most areas has occurred going way back to Clinton, Bush, Reagan and maybe even further back. Everything is way out of control and getting much worse if you're paying attention to what's going on like drones for killing Americans in the U.S. without any due process, arresting anyone, including protestors, just to get rid of them without any need to telling the person why. No phone calls allowed and open ended incarceration while the people are shipped overseas for torture. And this goes on and on as the government prepares for a major uprising like what's happening in the Middle East as Americans get fed up with what's going on. But this will be a long time since most Americans won't know what's really going on unless it directly affects them. Meanwhile things like foreclosures to millions of Americans keep happening. The banks rip people off with their fraudulent "products" which they are allowed due to DEREGULATION, the government gives the banks billions and trillions in bailouts from the American's taxes, and then the banks take people's homes away from them.
It all makes perfect sense if you connect the dots. The corruption in this country is off the charts and getting worse. We are now no longer a Democracy (and really haven't been for a long time) but becoming more and more of a POLICE STATE, CORPORATOCRACY, also known as FASCISM.
Another conturd on a false crusade