Fake Fish? Mission Viejo Sushi Sellers Shamed in Study

Is your grocery store selling fake fish?

Last year mystery shoppers snuck orders of "Pacific red snapper" twice out of Mission Viejo grocery stores. The shoppers sent them to laboratories for genetic testing.

Both times sushi labeled "snapper" was actually Pacific Ocean perch.

The shoppers were part of a study of Southern California sushi bars, restaurants and sushi venues performed by Oceana, an international nonprofit that advocates for ocean ecology.

Three out of every four snapper sold in the U.S. is not actually snapper, according to a 2004 study from the science journal Nature.

In fact, the percentage of mislabeled sushi in Southern California is "on par with" other regions like Boston, the Oceana study found.

At least one industry analyst has argued that mislabeling seafood is a matter of marketing, not fraud.

The original red snapper is known as Lutjanus campechanus by scientists. California state law allows 13 other fish to be labeled Pacific red snapper, but perch isn't on that list.

That means the grocers violated state law, Oceana says.

Other cities studied in Orange County included Seal Beach, Newport Beach, Garden Grove, Laguna Beach, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Dana Point and San Clemente.

Snapper was by far the most mislabeled fish in the study. It found 34 out of 34 samples labeled as snapper were actually tilapia, perch, rockfish or bream.

The fraudulent labeling of snapper and other fish occurred both for the purpose of passing off less expensive fish as premium fish, and for the purpose of concealing the sale of protected species, the study said.

"It is disheartening to know that consumers are not getting what they pay for," said Beth Lowell, campaign director at Oceana. "Seafood fraud is not only ripping off consumers, but it is putting their health at risk and undermining their efforts to eat sustainably."

In terms of venues, sushi bars were the worst offenders, with nearly 90 percent of samples found to be mislabeled. Eight of 10 sushi bars, including one in Costa Mesa, were found to have mislabeled escolar as white tuna.