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VIETNAMESE catfish is one of the fastest growing seafood products around the world, but it appears that it is increasingly being sold as anything but under its proper name.
Sometimes called river cobbler, tra fish, pangasius or basa, trading standards officials in Britain, Europe and the United States are cracking down on seafood companies, retailers and fried fish shops for selling it under the guise of more expensive varieties of white fish.
Several fish friers in the Midlands have been brought before the courts in recent months and fined heavily. In one of the latest cases a Plymouth chip shop owner was fined £5,500 for passing off Vietnamese catfish as cod. On wholesale markets cod is more than twice as expensive as catfish. The shop owner had claimed that he had trouble acquiring cod and had forgotten to change the notice in his window.
Trading standards officers have warned retailers that they are now paying more attention to fish shops (both fried and fresh) to ensure that what they are selling is correctly labelled. In the UK the actual offence is selling food 'not of the nature, substance or quality demanded by the purchaser'.
But it is not just in Britain where the issue is becoming a problem. In Mobile Alabama two business executives from Arizona were told last week they are likely to face a custodial sentence after pleading guilty to conspiring to defraud customers by selling large volumes (283,500 lbs) of Vietnamese catfish as sole. They will be sentenced in May.
US Attorney Kenyen Brown said: 'These prosecutions should send a clear message that instances of consumer fraud will be vigorously prosecuted and that this US attorney's office will continue to protect local seafood consumers and all components of the local seafood and industry.'
Vietnamese catfish is also becoming a threat to the health of some people. In Leicestershire, recently, a 26-year-old teacher was rushed to hospital with severe breathing problems when his throat swelled up after eating catfish and chips he bought from a local shop which he thought was traditional fish. He had suffered an allergic reaction to the fish.
Bill Crook, of the National Federation of Fish Friers, said fish from the Mekong River in Vietnam should be avoided: ‘We don’t like the fish and have said so. A lot of pub chains have started selling it as fish and chips without advertising what it really is.’
Should people be 'stimulated' to eat white fish alternatives to cod?
