| Customers love ordering good fish when they go | | | | species cost a restaurant pennies on the dollar |
| out to eat. Species with powerful name | | | | compared to coveted wild species. The |
| recognition like orange roughy, grouper, and | | | | restaurants in these four cities were busted after |
| salmon are great sellers on the menu and can be | | | | undercover reporters conducted DNA tests on |
| found in restaurants across the country. But are | | | | samples of the fish they were served. |
| consumers getting exactly what they pay for? | | | | The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is |
| Some fish species, especially those with a light | | | | supposed to regulate fish served in restaurants. |
| white meat, can be interchanged fairly easily | | | | Enforcement of fish fraud violations have been |
| without the knowledge of the customer. | | | | described as lax at best. Of course, the |
| It's an age-old trick in the food service industry, | | | | embarrassment of being caught on local TV is a |
| and a recent undercover report by local television | | | | powerful reprimand for any restaurant, but the |
| stations in four cities found that mislabeling fish | | | | opposite draw of making huge margins by |
| species may be more prevalent than anyone | | | | charging $20 or more for a fish entrée |
| imagined. The practice has been dubbed "fish | | | | that costs $2 - $3 a pound makes even the risk |
| fraud," and it has been an ongoing problem. A | | | | of getting caught seem small. |
| study from the '90s revealed that 37% of fish | | | | From a pure business point of view, the short |
| served in restaurants was mislabeled. And many | | | | term gains that come from making a high margin |
| industry experts believe the rate has gone up | | | | through mislabeled fish entrees is more than |
| since then. | | | | offset by the risk to your restaurant's reputation. |
| The most recent spate of reports about fish | | | | As has been emphasized in the restaurant |
| fraud were conducted by Scripps television | | | | industry in general, is that customer loyalty is |
| stations in Kansas City, Phoenix, Baltimore, and | | | | what gets restaurants through tough economic |
| Tampa. The most common mislabeling involves | | | | times. And fish fraud doesn't tend to build loyalty. |
| farm raised tilapia and catfish sold as grouper or | | | | Sometimes it's much better to take the long view |
| orange roughy and farm raised salmon sold as | | | | when it comes to the reputation of your |
| wild caught salmon. Naturally, the farm raised | | | | establishment. |