How do you know the fish you buy is really what it's supposed to be? The answer is often you don't. So the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is trying to protect consumers using DNA identification. It's a global project, and the Philippines is believed to have more types of fish than almost any place on Earth, so it's a great place to collect specimens. ABC7 News was the only TV station to go there with American researchers working to keep our food safe.
Each fish is suspended in a tank and photographed before its original color fades. The fish is preserved and scientists take a tissue sample. Those samples are sent to a lab like the one at the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. It takes a couple of days to treat them, run them through a genetic analyzer, and get a DNA sequence. Then researchers look at one specific gene believed to be unique to every species.