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Fish Authenticity Checks 2020

Each year fish or foods containing fish are sampled and analysed to determine compliance with Regulation 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers (S.I. No 556 of 2014) in that the species of fish declared on the label is detected.

In 2020, 13 products at the product marketing stage were sampled on a random basis by the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM). Sample analysis was coordinated by the Public Analyst Laboratory in Cork (Table 1). Results shows that there was (i) one non-compliant sample which corresponded to an Atlantic cod labelled as haddock and (ii) one sardine sample which speciation analysis was inconclusive.

Table 1: Results for the fish authenticity checks in 2020.

Sampling Agency Number of samples tested Sample description at the point of sampling Number of compliant samples

SFPA

9

2 Atlantic Cod (Gadus morhua)

2 Pacific Cod (G. macrocephalus)

2 European Hake (Merluccius merluccius)

3 Haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus)

8*

DAFM

4

3 Hake (Merluccius spp.)

1 Sardine

4

TOTAL

13

-

12

* One Atlantic cod sample was not compliant as it was labelled as haddock, which was not detected.