Is the Fish Sold in Grocery Stores as Red Snapper Correctly Labeled?

Overview

Objectives/Goals My objective was to find out if grocery shoppers are getting what they#ve paid for behind the fish counter. I wanted to find out if the fish in grocery stores labeled as Red Snapper was actually Red Snapper. Methods/Materials I used fillets of Red Snapper from four different grocery stores and use a chelex and proteinase K solution to digest the samples to be genetically sequenced. Results All of the samples turned out to be a different fish than Red Snapper. The 50% of samples that were usable were all from the genus Sebastes, which is rockfish, instead of Lutjanus, which is Red Snapper. None of the samples were Red Snapper. Conclusions/Discussion The fish sold to customers in grocery stores is not Red Snapper. All of the fillets were types of rockfish. The season in which the fillets were purchased may have had an effect on how many of the samples were correctly labeled and environmental problems such as the BP gulf oil spill, where Red Snapper is normally caught, could have drastically affected the market for Red Snapper.

Competition history

• CSEF 2011 Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology · Entry J0501

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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