Vancouver Restaurant Seafood Fraud

Posted by the dood on Thursday, June 4th, 2009

Just saw this on the Vancouver Sun this morning. Apparently a few of the restaurants out there using cheaper fish alternatives have been busted. I know it’s pretty common out there, as I’ve heard of many restaurants using pork and selling it as Veal, and using catfish instead of Cod, but this time it’s public, and these restaurants are going to have a tough time explaining it to customers. More than a quarter of 21 samples examined were fraudulent to some degree. Four were restaurants and two were fish fillets from T&T Supermarket… ever wonder why their Snapper and Rock Cod fillets were so cheap? They are technically a similar species of fish however, not a blatant misrepresentation.

Common fish swaps include:
Wild Salmon that’s really Farmed Salmon
Red Sanpper that’s really Tilapia
Crab that’s really Hake
Flounder as Halibut
Pollock as Cod

Restaurants Busted:
Coney Island Seafood on Marine Drive
Speeds Pub in Ladner
Takumi Japanese Restaurant in West Vancouver
Bon Sushi in Surrey

It’s a shame that there is so much fraud going on in day to day lives, when you go out to try and enjoy a nice cod fish and chips you might get catfish and chips… halibut sashimi turns out to be flounder sashimi.

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