GROWTH – DEDICATED CALL – 1/00
TOPIC III.19
Confirmation of the origin of wild and farmed salmon and other fish
1. CONFORMITY WITH THE WORK PROGRAMME
This topic falls under the Competitive and Sustainable Growth Programme, generic
activity Measurement and Testing. Specifically, it is related to Objective GROW-20006.2.2 Measurement and Testing anti-fraud methodologies for which expressions of
interest have been called.
2. KEYWORDS
Salmon, isotopic techniques, isotope ratio mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic
resonance, country of origin.
3. SUMMARY OF OBJECTIVES AND JUSTIFICATION
Wild salmon attracts a price premium (2-3x) over the price achieved for farmed fish.
This has led to a significant temptation for unscrupulous traders to pass-off farmed
salmon as the more valuable wild product with the consequent disruption to the salmon
market. Additionally the country of origin may be misrepresented either to evade quota
infringements or to hide the dumping of non-EC salmon within the Community.
To date there has been a lack of reliable methods able to successfully distinguish wild
and farmed salmon from these sources. Research is now required to further investigate
and refine isotopic methods to achieve this goal and to develop appropriate quality
criteria to enable the methodology to be used in enforcement laboratories within the EC.
4. BACKGROUND
Consumption of salmon (Salmo salar) has increased in recent years through consumers
seeking the nutritional benefits of high polyunsaturated acids in place of saturated fats
from meat. Whilst mainly through the consumption of salmon cuts, salmon oil as a
dietary supplement has also increased in demand.
This increase in demand for salmon in Europe comes at a time when natural fish stocks
are under significant pressure and quotas for salmon and other species have been
reduced. In order to match demand significant efforts and have been made and
significant success achieved in the introduction and growth of fish farming
(aquaculture). Aquacultural science has investigated a number of species and whilst
there has been some success with some species such as turbot, cod, etc. the most
successful is salmon. World farmed salmon increased from 7,000 tons in 1980 to
700,000 tons in 1997 and continues to increase.
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Wild salmon, however, is still perceived by many to be superior eating compared to
farm fish and because of the much restricted availability compared to farmed fish, wild
salmon typically commands a price 2-3x that of the farmed equivalent. With such a
price difference there is a temptation to mislabel farmed fish as “wild”. This is
particularly acute in years when the harvest is poor to due the environmental factors that
lead to year-on year fluctuations.
In addition to this misrepresentation there is also the possibility of making illicit gains
by the misrepresentation of the country of origin of salmon either because certain
countries now have perceived quality values (through marketing campaigns) or to dump
excess production from one country into another.
There are currently no methods established for detecting these frauds. A number of
methods, e.g. fatty acid profiles, electrophoresis, DNA methods, do exist for detecting
other related frauds, e.g. species identification, species substitution, determination of
cooking temperature, but to date none exist that have sufficient resolving power and
confidence for differentiating wild and farmed fish, or geographical origin.
Isotopic techniques are now well established for determining the authenticity of
products such as wine and fruit juice, and preliminary work on the use of isotopic
techniques suggests it is possible to distinguish wild and farmed fish. These techniques
are based on the quantitative determination of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen isotopes at
natural abundance levels. Isotopic content of a compound can vary according to its
origin and thereby provide information on the origin of the food product. Greater
resolution can be achieved by combining the information from measuring more than one
isotope (multi-dimensional studies). Stable isotope analyses are carried out using either
isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) or nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and both
techniques are now routinely available in laboratories throughout Europe.
To enable the methods developed to be used in enforcement procedures in European
courts it is imperative that the methods must be developed in association will quality
procedures to the standard of EN45001 / ISO 17025. Not only will this ensure the data
is sufficiently robust to withstand legal interrogation but that the methods can be readily
and reliably established in enforcement laboratories throughout Europe.
Finally, currently market interest is focussed upon salmon but as natural fish stocks
continue to decline the commercial incentive to farm traditionally caught species such
as cod will increase. The FAO predicted total world aquaculture to increase from 8% of
total harvest in 1990 to 27% in 2010. This will give rise to the same problems seen now
with salmon and there is benefit to challenge this new methodology with other fish
species.
5. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BENEFITS
Recent figures (Fischler) show Europe’s aquaculture production amounts to 1.9 billion
Euros in value and “provides approximately 60,000 jobs in terms of full time
equivalents including upstream and downstream activities”.
European Aquaculture is geographically concentrated in a limited number of areas
where suitable natural conditions exist and global figures do not reflect the “importance
of the aquaculture industry for certain coastal regions” (Fischler). In these areas,
aquaculture represents a considerable part of the local economy and a very valuable
source of employment given the remote locations. Many of these areas have relied
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upon the traditional fishing or farming and both have suffered economic decline in
recent times. Further these remote areas of Europe have limited opportunities for
attracting new industry.
From 1994 to 1999 European aquaculture has received almost 300 million euros from
Structural Funds and in the next programming period (2000-2006) it has been stated that
the aquaculture industry continues to be eligible for financial assistance (Fischler).
It is against this background of investment and economic development and the need to
protect the European consumer that this research will deliver the following economic
and social benefits:
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Protection of Europe’s aquaculture industry.
Protection of regional economies within the Community that depend upon the
maintenance of fair competition to ensure viability of their fishery and aquaculture
industries.
Protection of Community citizens against fraud when purchasing wild and farmed
salmon and salmon products.
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The protection of “country of origin brands” within the European market.
•
Support of the Commission’s fishery quotas.
The protection of European market from “dumping” of salmon produced in other
countries that is falsely labelled as “EC”.
A means of enforcing policies to control salmon poaching by allowing determination of
the origin of the salmon.
6. SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL OBJECTIVES
The principle research objectives are:
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To carry out a literature search to take account of work published between prior to
the start of the project.
To carry further method development on the use of site-specific deuterium and
carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance to provide quantitative isotopic content data
for use in the discrimination of fish samples of different origin.
To investigate the classification efficiency of both isotopic and composition
analyses.
To obtain and analyse a large number of samples from each of the important groups,
e.g. farmed, wild, Scottish, Norwegian, etc.
To analyse samples of other fish populations, e.g. other farmed and wild fish
species; and fish from different geographical locations, e.g. North Sea cod and
North East Atlantic cod.
To provide an integrated analytical and statistical approach for the differentiation of
wild and farmed salmon.
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To develop quality criteria for the analytical methodology in accordance with
EN45001 / ISO17025.
Such work should be carried out in liaison with the relevant technical committees of the
anti-fraud and fisheries directorates of the Commission. The proposal should also
include a clear means of technology transfer to aid the setting up of such methods in
official laboratories of the European Union. In particularly the methods should be
published in sufficient detail to allow them to be widely used.
7. TIME SCALE
It is anticipated that additional isotopic procedures and their associated quality
procedures should be available for routine use in doping control laboratories within 36
months.
References
Fischler, F., 1999, The future of aquaculture in Europe, 3rd annual Conference PESCA,
http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg14/speech1_en.htm