BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — If research being conducted at the University of Alabama at Birmingham pans out, you may soon be a lot more likely to get the fish you order in restaurants and at the market, instead of getting a cheaper species being passed off as the real thing.
A group of UAB graduate students working in a university program designed to take biotechnology research to market is developing a genetic test that may enable the seafood industry to quickly identify species of fish.
A study by the nonprofit organization Oceana found that a quarter to a third of all seafood is fraudulently labeled, and government studies have reached similar conclusions. Fish sold as red snapper, wild salmon and Atlantic cod most often is mislabeled. Catfish, tilapia and rockfish often are passed off as other, more expensive species, Oceana and federal regulators have found.
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