Catch of the day: seafood fraud detected by chemical fingerprint

Seafood is one of the most traded commodities in the world, but the supply chain can be complex making it susceptible to fraud. Provenance fraud occurs when consumers or businesses are deceived about origin of the seafood or its production method, and where products are substituted with lower quality seafood or from locations with fewer sustainable regulations. This type of fraud can undermine sustainability, safety and consumer confidence in the industry. It also presents a safety risk as poor quality seafood can sometimes contain hidden pathogens, unlisted allergens and fewer nutrients.

In order to help combat seafood fraud and stop illegal and unsustainable fishing, Australian scientists have developed universal chemical fingerprints that can trace the geographic origins of many marine species.

Marine ecologists Dr Zoe Doubleday and Dr Jasmin Martino have identified chemical fingerprints common to the bones and shells of marine life from specific ocean environments, allowing them to track where individual seafood comes from.

Doubleday, who developed the concept as part of her ARC Future Fellowship at the University of South Australia (UniSA), said: “It is important we know where our seafood comes from and that consumers can trust the label of origin, otherwise it threatens the integrity of the industry and the fisheries they depend upon.”

Working alongside Martino, a former UniSA postdoctoral researcher who now works at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Doubleday built a map of ocean chemistry that can distinguish the origin of seafood between south-east Asia and southern Australia.

“Precise levels of chemicals found in seafood is controlled by the ocean where marine life is based, so we can establish a chemical fingerprint that tells us which body of water the animal comes from.”

Paper-based and digital tracing (such as blockchain) are also used to determine where seafood is from, but until now, chemical fingerprinting has largely been restricted to land animals.

“The advantage of chemical fingerprinting is that it is difficult to falsify. Now that we have established a universal chemical marker, with ongoing research and development, it could transform the way we provenance seafood on a global scale,” Doubleday said.

The findings have been published in the journal Fish and Fisheries.

Image credit: iStock.com/nensuria