A new study has found that shoppers in Ireland and Britain are being overcharged for cheaper fish being sold off as cod.
According to research by scientists at UCD, some 28% of cod in Ireland was mislabelled, along with 7% in the UK.
The results, published in the scientific journal Fish and Fisheries, say less expensive species, including pollock and whiting, are labelled and sold as cod.
The team also found that threatened species of cod were also being sold as 'sustainably sourced' in one unnamed supermarket chain.
Researchers said nearly 90% of all mislabelled cod products identified from both Ireland and the UK were smoked, breaded or battered, because this can conceal the appearance, smell and the taste of a fish fillet.
Scientists at UCD used DNA barcoding techniques to genetically identify 226 cod products purchased from supermarkets, fishmongers and takeaway outlets across Ireland and the UK.
They compared the results against the product labels and found in 37 of the 131 cod products purchased in Ireland, and seven of the 95 purchased in the UK, the products were shown not to be cod.
Dr Stefano Mariani, from UCD's School of Biology and Environmental Science, said they found mislabelled cod products in each type of outlet, and identified that most of the mislabelled cod products were actually less expensive fish species substituted for cod and sold to consumers at a price premium.
'By genetically testing cod products samples purchased from supermarkets we found threatened Atlantic cod mislabelled and sold as 'sustainably sourced' Pacific cod,' said Dana Miller, the lead author who completed the study as part of her PhD at University College Dublin.
'All of the cod products mislabelled as 'sustainably sourced' Pacific cod were purchased from a single supermarket chain that operates in both Ireland and the UK.'
