NumByte 3: Ring Up Something Fishy

What are the odds that fish you bought at the supermarket was really the fish advertised? According to a report by Oceana, which compiled data from a variety of sources, about 66% to 75%. That's right, fish fraud seems rampant in supermarkets -- and restaurants -- across the US. Indeed, with 1,700 different species of seafood from all over the world now available for sale in the US, DNA sampling found that up to 70% of some species of fresh and packaged fish were mislabeled. As the US consumer price index for seafood rose more than 27% over the past 10 years, and most of that imported, that's a lot of fraud. Talk about a ticking time bomb for supermarket purchasing managers and marketing departments...only about 2% of imported fish is being inspected by the Food and Drug Administration, and that found about 33% of seafood imports were mislabeled. But here's the kicker, not only do customers often get the wrong fish type, they get shortchanged too.

Investigations in 17 US states found more than 21,000 packages where up to 40% of the seafood product’s weight was ice, leading consumers to be overcharged as much $9 per package.