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Atlantic salmon in processed food is prone to substitution with cheaper species of similar appearance such as rainbow trout, chum salmon or masou salmon.

In this paper (open access) the authors developed a sensitive and visual PCR-based CRISPR/Cas12a detection method to identify Atlantic salmon ingredients in processed foods. A guide RNA (gRNA) was designed based on the mitochondrial genome of Atlantic salmon, with an efficient target site identified within the ATP synthase F0 subunit 6 (ATP6) gene.

Specificity was tested against 9 other species commonly associated with Atlantic salmon adulteration. There was no evidence of cross-reactivity.

The authors report that theirassay exhibited an absolute detection limit of 0.5 pg and a relative sensitivity of 0.1 %. The results were visually interpretable under UV light without the need for complex instrumentation. They cross-checked their results through Sanger sequencing during the authentication of commercial products.

Photo by Natalia Y. on Unsplash

Oceana, a nonprofit seafood conservation group, did a study back in 2015 and found that 43 percent of the salmon they tested was actually mislabeled.

Most of that salmon fraud ― we’re talking 69 percent of it ― mislabeled farmed salmon as being wild-caught salmon, which is typically more revered. That means you could be paying for a wild-caught Pacific salmon filet, when in fact you’re getting Atlantic farmed salmon.

Other fraud in the salmon market occurs when “one type of wild salmon is substituted for another, like the cheaper chum salmon or pink salmon being sold as a more expensive salmon like coho or sockeye,” Kimberly Warner, chief scientist at Oceana, told HuffPost.

Most of the fraud happens at restaurants.

Oceana found that most of the fraud from their study occurred at restaurants (67 percent vs. 20 percent at big chain retailers). Smaller grocery markets were also often guilty of salmon fraud. Big chain retailers are your safest bet for getting the salmon you actually want. But it isn’t always restaurants or markets pulling a fast one on consumers.

Sometimes the restaurants and retailers are the victims.

“What we’re dealing with is two different types of fraud,” Gavin Gibbons of the National Fisheries Institute told HuffPost. “One is species substitution, where the retailer or restaurant is the victim. They’re being defrauded because the person selling them the salmon tells them it’s one thing when it’s not. The other side of it is menu mislabeling or just mislabeling in a retail establishment, and that’s when they say it’s wild-caught salmon but they know it’s farmed salmon. So there’s two distinctly different things, but they’re both fraud.”

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salmon (2)

Authenticating Atlantic Salmon in Processed Foods – Visual Detection with PCR-CRISPR/Cas12a system

When you buy fresh salmon, you could be getting duped almost half the time

Most of the fraud happens at restaurants.

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