Чорная икорка из Миссиссиппи
Guided by DNA “barcoding” experts at The Rockefeller University and the American Museum of Natural History, 12th grade students Brenda Tan and Matt Cost of Trinity School, in Manhattan, revealed a lot of apparent consumer fraud in progress, finding that the labels of 11 of 66 food products purchased at local markets misrepresented the actual contents.
The results will be reported in the January issue of BioScience magazine.
Among other things, Tan and Cost also found an invasive species of insect in a box of grapefruit from Texas as well as what could be a new species or subspecies of New York cockroach.
The work builds on the 2008 findings of two other Trinity School students, Kate Stoeckle and Louisa Strauss, who found one-quarter of fish they bought at markets and restaurants in Manhattan were mislabeled. Some labels hid endangered fish species but most misrepresented cheap fish species like tilapia sold as expensive species like tuna.
DNA barcoding technology identifies and distinguishes known and unknown species quickly, cheaply, easily and accurately based on a snippet of genetic code. Among the “mislabeled” food products identified by Tan and Cost using the technique:
• An expensive specialty “sheep’s milk” cheese made in fact from cow’s milk;
• “Venison” dog treats made of beef;
• “Sturgeon caviar” that was really Mississippi paddlefish;
• A delicacy called “dried shark,” which proved to be freshwater Nile perch from Africa;
• A label of “frozen yellow catfish” on walking catfish, an invasive species;
• “Dried olidus” (smelt) that proved to be Japanese anchovy, an unrelated fish;
• “Caribbean red snapper” that turned out to be Malabar blood snapper, a fish from Southeast Asia.
The results will be reported in the January issue of BioScience magazine.
Among other things, Tan and Cost also found an invasive species of insect in a box of grapefruit from Texas as well as what could be a new species or subspecies of New York cockroach.
The work builds on the 2008 findings of two other Trinity School students, Kate Stoeckle and Louisa Strauss, who found one-quarter of fish they bought at markets and restaurants in Manhattan were mislabeled. Some labels hid endangered fish species but most misrepresented cheap fish species like tilapia sold as expensive species like tuna.
DNA barcoding technology identifies and distinguishes known and unknown species quickly, cheaply, easily and accurately based on a snippet of genetic code. Among the “mislabeled” food products identified by Tan and Cost using the technique:
• An expensive specialty “sheep’s milk” cheese made in fact from cow’s milk;
• “Venison” dog treats made of beef;
• “Sturgeon caviar” that was really Mississippi paddlefish;
• A delicacy called “dried shark,” which proved to be freshwater Nile perch from Africa;
• A label of “frozen yellow catfish” on walking catfish, an invasive species;
• “Dried olidus” (smelt) that proved to be Japanese anchovy, an unrelated fish;
• “Caribbean red snapper” that turned out to be Malabar blood snapper, a fish from Southeast Asia.