CHICAGO — When you walk into your neighborhood fish market or grocery store, the display case is filled with "fresh" swordfish, "fresh" salmon, "fresh" shrimp, "fresh" petrale sole.
But then you take your catch home and find that your "fresh" filet has a frozen center. Or your fork finds mush instead of firm flesh.
How long has your dinner been away from the ocean? And what has happened to it since it left the waves behind?
Consumer groups contend that there is little regulation of the seafood industry and that shoppers should beware of what they buy and how it is sold.
"Under current law, consumers can be misled as to fish products' freshness, its quality and which species it is meant to be," said Ellen Haas, executive director of Public Voice for Food and Health Policy, a consumer group based in Washington. "There are inadequate standards for labeling."
The Food and Drug Administration is charged with ensuring that food labeling is not false or misleading, but the agency has no definition of "fresh," no standards or criteria for using the term to sell food.
"Fresh is a meaningless term as it's used in supermarkets today," said Nancy H. Hasselback, publisher of Seafood Business magazine. "There are deceptive practices everywhere, and some people label seafood fresh when they mean previously frozen."
Consumers aren't the only ones confused about the fish they find. The seafood industry itself is at times unclear on the concept of freshness.
"Do you know or have you ever thought about how much of what we call 'fresh seafood sales' is really 'previously frozen'?" Russ Byerly, vice president of retail merchandising for the New England Shrimp Co., asked as he addressed retailers Tuesday at the Food Marketing Institute's annual supermarket convention in Chicago.
"Have we misused the word 'fresh' " to cover all fish sold in special seafood sections of supermarkets, he asked. "I think we have."
What consumers consider "fresh" fish is often described by the seafood industry in Byerly's terminology: "fresh never frozen." But even if a consumer were to buy fish so labeled, there is no assurance that it has seen the ocean in recent days.
"The standard rule of thumb is that fish caught 10 days ago is fresh," Hasselback said. And that's one reason why frozen seafood can be better than fresh, she said.
