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Seafood FrauD
Fish Fraud: The Deception on Your Plate
Fish Fraud
Seafood is one of the most globally traded food products — and one of the most frequently mislabeled.
Fish fraud happens when seafood is sold under the wrong name, intentionally or through opaque supply chains.
Lower-value fish may be marketed as premium species, farmed fish labeled as wild-caught, or illegally caught fish relabeled before reaching consumers.
This deception hides overfishing, undermines sustainable fisheries, and prevents consumers from making informed choices.
Without transparency in the seafood supply chain, illegal and unethical practices can easily enter the global market undetected.
What Does Judaism say?
לֹ֖א תִּגְנֹ֑בוּ וְלֹא־תְכַחֲשׁ֥וּ וְלֹֽא־תְשַׁקְּר֖וּ אִ֥ישׁ בַּעֲמִיתֽוֹ׃
You shall not steal; you shall not deal deceitfully or falsely with one another.
Leviticus 19:11
אסור לרמות בני אדם במקח וממכר או לגנוב דעתם
It is forbidden to defraud a person in commerce or to mislead them.
Shulchan Arukh, Choshen Mishpat 228
Seafood fraud, mislabeling or misrepresenting fish, is a clear violation of Jewish law, which prohibits deception and mandates honesty in commerce. Our tradition forbids not only outright lies but any practice that creates a false impression about a product’s identity, origin, or quality. Beyond the ethical breach, such deception can pose serious physical danger. If a person unknowingly consumes mislabeled seafood, it may expose them to allergens or other health risks, raising concerns of Safek Sakana, the possibility of danger, under the obligation of Pikuach Nefesh, to save a life. Thus, seafood fraud is both a moral violation and a potential threat to human health in the eyes of Jewish tradition.
Most Mislabeled fish species
In a 2025 scientific journal paper was published on ScienceDirect by Sarah Ahles, et al. found that nearly 39.1% of seafood products in the United States are mislabeled when compared to their true species identity, based on DNA and market studies of 4,179 samples across 32 states. The most common form of mislabeling was species substitution, occurring in over a quarter of samples, followed by inappropriate or conflicting market names. While the most popular seafoods consumed in the U.S. had lower substitution rates than less-common species, the overall prevalence of mislabeling highlights significant transparency issues in seafood supply chains and underscores the need for stronger labeling standards and enforcement.
Red Snapper
Lutjanus campechanus
The most documented case of seafood fraud worldwide. Frequently substituted with tilapia, rockfish, vermilion snapper, or other less expensive species.
Tuna
Bluefin & Canned
High-value species like Atlantic and Pacific bluefin are often substituted with yellowfin, bigeye, escolar (sometimes sold as “white tuna”), or other tuna species.
Sea Bass
(Chilean Sea Bass)
Dissostichus eleginoides
Particularly Chilean sea bass (Patagonian toothfish), which is commonly replaced with cheaper white fish.
Halibut
(Pacific Halibut)
Hippoglossus stenolepis
Often substituted with flounder, arrowtooth flounder, or other flatfish species.
Grouper
(Nassau Grouper)
Epinephelus striatus
Includes Nassau grouper and other reef groupers; frequently replaced with tilapia or other lower-value reef fish.
Cod
(Atlantic Cod)
Gadus morhua
Atlantic cod is often substituted with Pacific cod, pollock, or other gadid species.
Salmon
(Atlantic Salmon)
Salmo salar
Wild-caught salmon is sometimes replaced with farmed salmon or lower-value salmonid species.
Swordfish
(North Atlantic Swordfish)
Xiphias gladius
Sometimes substituted with shark species or other large pelagic fish.
Globally, studies consistently find that 20–40% of seafood samples are mislabeled, with some high-value reef and pelagic species showing substitution rates exceeding 50% in certain markets. Once a fish has been skinned and filleted, it becomes virtually impossible for the average consumer to visually identify the species.
Citations
Sarah Ahles, Christina A. Mireles DeWitt, and Rosalee S. Hellberg, “Seafood Species Mislabeling in the United States: A Meta-Analysis,” Food Control (2025), ScienceDirect, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956713524008272
Kimberly Warner et al., Oceana Study Reveals Seafood Fraud Nationwide (Washington, DC: Oceana, 2013), https://oceana.org/reports/national-seafood-fraud-testing-results/
Donna-Mareè Cawthorn and Stefano Mariani, “Global Patterns of Seafood Mislabeling,” Biological Conservation 236 (2019): 556–570, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.05.027
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NOAA Fisheries, accessed February, 2026, https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/
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