Sushi Dilemma
Let me start by saying I enjoyed sushi, I have since the moment I was introduced to it when I was in college. Any birthday or special occasion that afforded me the opportunity to select the place we ate, was an opportunity to get more sushi. I have enjoyed the 2 piece nigiri bites with fresh caught, sliced fish that melted in your mouth. I have enjoyed dining with friends, ordering so many rolls they served our meals on the boat. I enjoyed the all you can eat 2 hour sushi dinners filling up on so much seafood and rice that I couldn’t eat the next day.
But now, things are different. Much, much different. And it’s not because I’m older with a real job that allows me to afford the expensive sushi and sake dinners I used to crave. Things are different now because of what I know. They say the more you know the better, but as time has progressed, more research has been done and information has been shared. In the past I would already be in my car on the way to meet someone before the phone call ended but now, I find myself hesitating when someone asks if I’d like to join them for sushi, and here’s why.
Concerns over microplastics have been in the news for several years now, with studies like the one from WWF in 2019 talking about how humans consume an average of a credit card's worth of plastic each week being tossed around, it's a bit harder to turn a blind eye. Spend a little time looking at research studies and you can quickly see how those studies are just the tip of the iceberg. The estimates you will read about are likely vastly underestimated.
Microplastics and microfibers are showing in our everyday lives, from the air we breathe to the food we eat and the beers we relax with after a long day. They aren’t just limited to everyday civilization and city life. Plastics have been found in even the most remote, pristine environments and in the deepest, hardest to reach places of the underwater world, like the Marianas Trench. You would think the oceans would be out of reach for microplastics, but it's the opposite. Trash and other excess from our lives, including numerous quantities of plastic, make their way into the system every day and a portion of that can even make it as far as the ocean.
There are 5 gyres in the ocean. Gyres are massive areas where currents pass to create a large vertex near the surface of the ocean. Due to the way the opposing currents move, things like trash (either washed out to sea, or lost at sea) tend to get stuck in the center of these massive aquatic vertices. One of the gyres in the Pacific has collected so much trash, it was given the name The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. A vast majority of the trash that ends up in these gyres is plastic of all shapes and sizes. While the large pieces of trash may seem like the biggest problem, it's actually the small stuff and the larger pieces that have broken down which cause the real problems.
As plastic breaks into smaller pieces, it tends to look more and more like bits of food that fish eat. A study released in 2020 found that nearly 60% of fish that made up nearly 200 species from around the world contained microplastics in their organs.” This might not seem like that big of a deal, but in 2021 the FAO statistics showed that, at 180 million tonnes, fish and seafood were the most consumed meats around the world. Combine these statistics with the basics of food chains and bioaccumulation and it can get a bit concerning for the millions of people around the world consuming plastic second hand through the foods they eat.
When I sit down and eat a piece of sushi, I’m not looking for a hard or crunchy bite to know if microplastics are in my food. I’ve read enough articles to know that I should just assume microplastics are in the sushi I eat. And to be fair, they are also in the other foods I eat just as much as they are in the water I drink, and the air I breathe. Something about the knowledge that most of the land based animal products are domesticated, coming from animals that are either grazing free range or being raised on some sort of pellet food, neither of which should have plastics in them, makes me more at ease. While there are numerous options for aquacultured seafood, a large amount of the fish and seafood available for consumption are wild caught, meaning they can consume whatever their hearts desire, including plastic. Even aquacultured seafood species, if they are being raised in the open ocean, have access to microplastics that drift past them in the water currents.
Are you still with me? Can you see now why I might be thinking a bit harder about enjoying a nice sushi dinner? I haven’t even gotten around to talking about my concerns over whether the sushi roll or nigiri I ordered actually contains the fish or seafood it’s supposed to.
Seafood fraud or mislabeling has been a known issue that shows up in research studies as early as 2011, but during 2021 and 2022 it has made a bigger splash on news headlines. If you are a fan of the sandwich fast food chain Subway, you may be familiar with the lawsuit that took place in the last few years. The chain was sued when 19 out of 20 samples of the tuna used in their sandwiches were found to have genetic material from chicken and pork, but were totally devoid of tuna. This is just one example, here are few other studies throughout the years that have looked at mislabeled seafood:
2016 Study by Oceana
In 25,000+ seafood samples from 55 countries, 20% of them were mislabeled.
In the United States alone, nearly 1 of every 3 fish that were for sale were tested and found to be mislabeled.
DNA testing of 283 samples from 180 restaurants in 23 European countries showed that 1 out of 3 restaurants sold mislabeled seafood.
50% of the Pike perch, Sole, Bluefin, and Yellowfin tuna, were labeled incorrectly.
Between 14%-33% of Hake, Cod, Haddock and Swordfish were labeled incorrectly.
Out of 300 Snapper samples from 6 different countries, 40% were mislabeled.
Of 92 different samples of a single type of seafood that were tested, 7.6% of the samples were mislabeled. Many of the products listed as higher priced items like prawn roe, and wild caught salmon, were replaced with lower value items like fish eggs and arrowtooth flounder.
Of the 13 mixed-species seafood samples that were tested 38.5% were mislabeled. They found that things like prawn balls showed up as having pig DNA on multiple tests.
Many of the multi-species samples claiming to have things like crab and lobster, were nearly absent of any crustacean DNA.
36% of more than 9,000 samples from supermarkets, restaurants, and fishmongers in 30 different countries were mislabelled
One of the first studies that came out stated that nearly 74% of sushi at restaurants is mislabeled meaning not only are you likely paying way more for something than you should, but you weren’t getting what you ordered. I’d like to think that over time (it's been a decade since that study was released in 2013) things have gotten better and consumers have become more vigilant. However you saw from the statistics of the studies listed above that mislabeling issues are still occurring on a large scale today around the world.
At this point, if you’re anything like me when I first started looking into this, you might be staring at your screen with a look of shock or confusion wondering how this sort of thing is possible. So, let me walk you through it.
Let’s say a tuna fish is harvested in the middle of the ocean on a boat that is part of a fleet. The fish would go from the smaller vessel, to a larger one for storage before eventually being transported back to shore. Once it gets to the docks it could change hands again, and as it does, it might not look the same as it did when it was first caught and easy to identify. In order to save on freight, it can be partially prepared before being shipped. This is just one way mislabeling can happen. According to NOAA, other ways can include transshipping, “when seafood products are exported through different countries to avoid duties and tariffs. At-sea transfers—when illegal fishing vessels transfer their catch to cargo vessels carrying legitimately caught seafood, and falsifying trade documents.”
While what happens in some of the larger supply chains is out of our control, we can do our best to make informed decisions about what we eat and places we support. We can educate ourselves. Do some research so you will know what seafood near you is sustainable and has transparent traceability. Check out some of our previous blog articles where we talk about sustainability. Support local fishermen and get their fresh catch of the day. Make friends with local restaurant chefs who you know you can trust.
I am by no means writing this to scare you off from enjoying sushi. My intent is to open your eyes to the choices you make- not just in what you eat, but also in the stuff you purchase and all the plastics coming with that stuff. In the past you would hear people say you should only eat so much fish because of the mercury content in it, but I don’t hear that as much now, and it makes me wonder, is plastic the new mercury? When you decide to treat yourself, do it right. It’s not likely that you will find something that is plastic free, but you can find a local seafood restaurant that uses fresh caught fish or shellfish, and has traceability.
