Those Vietnamese catfish again...

[charleville]

From today's Sydney Morning Herald...

Three NSW fish retailers have been caught giving consumers the raw prawn - by passing off cheap fish, prawns and scallops as more expensive seafood.

The NSW government today said fines had been imposed on Costi Brothers Seafood at Roselands, Penrith Seafoods and the Seafood Factory Pty Ltd, near Newcastle.

The Roselands Costi Bros store, in Sydney's south-west, was fined $6000 for trying to pass off imported Vietnamese catfish as more expensive barramundi fillets, shark as "deep sea cod" and vannamei prawns from Thailand as local king prawns.

Penrith Seafood was fined $3375 for labelling Asian scallops as the more expensive Tasmanian variety, while the Seafood Factory was fined $6500 after also trying to sell imported prawns as local produce.

Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said all three retailers were uncovered by Food Authority inspectors and the fines showed that fish substitution and bogus labelling would not be tolerated.

"Customers have a right to know exactly what they're buying and we will continue to crack down on any type of scam that misleads people," Mr Macdonald said.

"Ongoing surveillance shows most of the industry is doing the right thing, but anyone who thinks they can get away with misleading consumers should think again."

[DNO40]

Great stuff !


DNO

[The_Walrus]

Great stuff indeed. :)

Now if they'd also hit the restaurants. A survey a couple of years ago showed that "mis" labeling was rife in some capital cities.

Luc

[onerabbit]

All for the precious dollar, should have been twice as much.

Muzz


That Bassa sh!t is everywhere

[aussiefool]

And I thouhjt costi bros were one of the better names in seafool >:(
Once again that is why I only eat what I catch

[Bream_Reaper01]

This made one of the current affair shows last night.Hope there's more to be caught.

[lock]

Good stuff. Imagine the mark up they put on the imported stuff.

[Panda]

3 to 6 thousand $ fines are no deterrent at all.
Now the adverse publicity for the offending companies would likely make them think about continuing the practice.

The downside is that the general public will lose confidence in ALL fish retailers who are supporting locally caught product.

I know there are a lot of recreational fishers out there who would like to see the pro fishing industry destroyed because they see them as competitors for a scarce resource, but spare a thought for the old pensioners who would love a piece of fresh bream or whiting if they could afford it.

[charleville]

The downside is that the general public will lose confidence in ALL fish retailers who are supporting locally caught product.

This has to be very true. #I am very skeptical about fish labelling now and am becoming increasingly wary of buying fish & chips anywhere.

...well except for whole fish that is. #Which reminds me of when I took my Melbourne son to dinner one night last year in an expensive restaurant at the wharf where the Tassie ferry leaves from at Port Melbourne. #He ordered whole barrimundi. #Hahaha! #The thing was smaller than the plate. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D #Those Victorians are suckers for anything. ;D ;D ;D ;D #Then again, he ate it and I paid for it. #:-/ #

[fish2eat]

Just guessing numbers here, but lets assume that when fish is filleted, 80% of people could not identify the species. When fish is filleted and cooked (and served in a restaurant) 95% of people couldn't tell the species.

I'll bet that ain't far from the truth, and that's why they get away with it.

[gogecko]

I read that they are gonna bring in DNA testing for fillets soon. That should put the wind up the restaurants.

Andrew

[Bros]

When I used to go reef fishing a number of years ago we used to eat the rubbish fish there and bring home the good fish. One night I cooked for the four of us and we had a mixture of matte cod, job fish, parrot and shark. As we were all experts and rated the shark as rubbish not one person could pick the shark and I told them shark was on the menu. By the way we were reasonably sober.

Once fish is cooked it can be hard to pick what it is but I think I can now pick the Vietamese catfish.

[wetnwild11]

Nah thats de Costi sounds the same well almost! ;D

[DICER]

I'm glad they are starting to look.

[land-lubber]

i went into a seafood/takeaway on the sunny coast the other day, they were selling (i dont remember the exact name of the first 'fish') Basa and dory. the dory was $1 per kg more expencive than the other, but on close inspection it was all that catfish crap!!! one was the pinkish style fillet and the other was the whitish 1 (they are all the same fish, i cheaked it on the website that was posted here some time ago) i am 100% certain that thay were the same, and they were definately that catfish. same fillet shape texture etc. it is so wrong. ::)

[fishingnottake]

did you up them?

[count_baysea]

Is all dory bassa ?? i saw tasmanian dory the other day at my local. Is this a way of selling pacific dory by changing the name.