Species identification of fishery products in Germany

Due to the huge variety of fish species on the European market and the loss of morphologic characters upon fish processing, molecular methods are needed for reliable species identification of fishery products. There are 3 official methods for fish species authentication in Germany and a 4th method is currently considered to be included into the official collection of methods. Within the framework of the EU project ‘Labelfish’ (the Atlantic network on genetic control of fish and seafood labelling and traceability) species authenticity of fish samples from the German market and from German restaurants was analysed with 2 official methods in the years 2013 and 2014. Substitution of fish species was remarkably high among common sole restaurant samples (50 %), followed by substitution of tinned tuna species (17.4 %) and fresh and frozen tuna products (13.2 %). However there was no adulteration of market cod samples at all. Substitution of fish used in restaurants presumably is taking place directly within the restaurants rather than earlier in the retail sector, because species used as substitutes in restaurants were not be found in the respective fresh and frozen products from the retail.