Application of DNA‐Based Methods to Identify Fish and Seafood Substitution on the Commercial Market

Abstract

Fish and seafood substitution has become an important concern in domestic and international marketplaces, in part due to increased international trade, per capita seafood consumption, and production of processed foods. In many cases, seafood substitution is a form of economic deception, where highly prized species are substituted with those of lesser value. To prevent illegal species substitution, a number of DNA‐based methods have been developed to detect fish and seafood species in commercial products. These methods, along with common gene targets, have been reviewed previously in this journal. The current article is meant to build upon earlier discussions by providing a comprehensive review of the application of these DNA‐based methods to the discovery of fish and seafood substitution on the commercial market. Popular food uses, potential substitution cases, and peer‐reviewed research articles published to date are discussed for all major species groups of concern, including flatfish, gadoids, scombroids, salmonids, percoids, sturgeons, sharks, eels, and bivalves. The use of DNA‐based methods to monitor commercial whale meat products is also reviewed.

DNA barcoding for the identification of common economic aquatic products in Central China and its application for the supervision of the market trade

“…Hence, the detection of substituted species, as well as increasing the public awareness of the nutrition level and shifting consumer attitudes toward products, has become an important topic in the aquatic products industry. Thus, rapid, reliable, and reproducible tests that can be used to verify the species in common economic aquatic products are needed in many areas (Rasmussen & Morrissey, 2009;Steinke, Zemlak, & Hebert, 2009). In addition, species identification is useful for ensuring honest trade exchanges, specifically for market management organizations to provide correct consumer information and to effectively supervise the aquatic products market trade.…”

DNA‐Based Detection of Commercial Fish Species

“…PCR-RFLP is one of the most widely used techniques for fish species detection to date [17]. With this method, a pair of universal primers is employed to amplify the same DNA region in all species.…”

“…Some specific mtDNA regions that have been targeted for species identification include the genes coding for cytochrome b, cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI), 12S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA), and 16S rRNA. These gene targets have been used for differentiation of a great number of species groups, including sturgeons, flatfish, codfish, salmonids, gadoids, scombroids, eel, cephalopods, crabs, and many others [17]. Furthermore, the use of cytochrome b and COI as standardized species-level markers has been extensively researched and both have been shown to be effective at discriminating closely related species.…”

Species detection using HyBeacon ® probe technology: Working towards rapid onsite testing in non-human forensic and food authentication applications

“…These include routine sample testing in the laboratory [32], chain of custody documentation and product certification [33], all of which make it more difficult for substitution and food-mislabelling to take place. The recent creation of a Food Crime Unit in the UK will further support and strengthen the activities of these groups.…”