Assessing fish label accuracy via DNA barcoding from a Fairbanks market

Overview

With fish growing in popularity as a food, and global consumption of it likewise increasing, correct identification and accurate labels of fish products help to protect consumers, ward off potential fraud and possible overfishing and loss of resources. To that end, DNA barcoding is a method that has been demonstrated to provide precise and swift identification of fish species. In this paper, the labeling accuracy of a fish market in Fairbanks is assessed by collecting samples from ten fishes and applying th e DNA barcoding method to verify their labels. It is shown that DNA barcoding had an 80% success rate for identification, and out of the samples identified, 25% of the samples were mislabeled. Though simply a limited case study, all these cases begin to show the prevalent issue of mislabeling, even in a small city like Fairbanks. The next step would be to expand the study to include several samples of each fish as well as samples from all the fish markets to gain a fuller picture of mislabeling issues in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Competition history

• JSHS 2025 Category not listed

Resources

• National JSHS abstract book ↗

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