Sushi? Hey, It Might Be Carp!

My wife and I are big sushi fans, and I think I can tell one fish from another. But I might be wrong. A recent study by UCLA suggests that I–and you–could be fooled:

Los Angeles diners chowing down on sushi may be surprised to learn that their yellowtail roll might not really have any yellowtail in it at all. A new study from the University California Los Angeles (UCLA) and Loyola Marymount University (LMU) found that 47 percent of sushi in L.A. eateries is mislabeled as the wrong fish.

47%? Seriously? That’s like random.

The study, which examined 26 area restaurants from 2012 to 2015, discovered that while tuna was almost always tuna, and salmon was almost always salmon, plenty of fish were masquerading as something else.

I suppose that is because most of us know salmon when we see it. Tuna, too. Other fish? Not so clear.

But out of 43 orders of halibut and 32 orders of red snapper, DNA testing showed a different kind of fish being used everytime — in both cases flounder (some species of which are considered severely overfished by Seafood Watch) was the substitute.

The moral of the story is that we should stick to sushi places we trust, and when in doubt, stick to fish we can recognize.