Have you sometimes wondered if that “wild caught” salmon actually came from an aqua farm? Or if the “U.S. catfish” in the display case might have been born and raised in Vietnam? Is that “red snapper” actually red snapper and worth the premium price?

Scientists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are able to answer those questions through a project that creates DNA barcodes to identify individual fish species. The massive project is part of an effort aimed at solving the problem of species substitution.

Species substitution can result in cheap fish being labeled as pricy ones, but mislabeling can also threaten public health. For example, in 2007, a prohibited and highly toxic variety of puffer fish, also known as fugu or blowfish, was smuggled into the United States in boxes labeled as “headless monkfish.” This deception resulted in illnesses in multiple states.

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