REVISITING THE SEAFOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
with similar instances of fraud and misinformation found at other test locations from California to Florida .
This is of course a situation that comes with several sets of problems , the most obvious being that consumers — and even restaurants and retailers , depending on where the discrepancies emerge — are deprived of the right to make thoughtful and meaningful choices about the food they serve and consume .
Fraud in mislabeling cheap fish as a more expensive cut also lines pockets while cheating everyone further along the supply chain .
But there are also even more insidious issues at work . Mislabeled seafood can create serious health issues , if a consumer unknowingly purchases and eats a species of fish that triggers an allergic reaction . A lack of transparency can also link otherwise praised businesses to egregious human rights violations , as Costco Wholesale is now discovering — the retailer is being sued along with Nestle and Mars Company for sourcing shrimp from farms in Thailand , which have come under fire for worker abuse and slave labor .
But a sea change is already underway in the industry . In 2014 , at the global “ Our Ocean ” conference led by Secretary of State John Kerry , the Obama administration established a task force via executive order , recruiting members of the Department of Agriculture , the Department of Homeland Security , the Federal Trade Commission , the Food and Drug Administration and many more to crack down on seafood fraud , mislabeling , and other
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