Mislabelled frozen fish fillets in the Klang Valley in Malaysia and its potential impact on consumers

Razali, Nor’Adhlin Sofia; Bakar, Yosni; Mohd-Assaad, Norfarhan; Ghazali, Shahriman Mohd

doi:10.1007/s00003-022-01373-1

Research Article
Published: 28 February 2022

Mislabelled frozen fish fillets in the Klang Valley in Malaysia and its potential impact on consumers

Nor’Adhlin Sofia Razali¹,
Yosni Bakar¹,
Norfarhan Mohd-Assaad² &
Shahriman Mohd Ghazali ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8539-6213¹

Journal of Consumer Protection and Food Safety volume 17, pages 145–154 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Seafood mislabelling ocurrs globally and is under much scrutiny. Many developed countries have strict management and enforcement efforts in place, and report that the problem is under control. However, in developing countries this problem appears rampant and remains unchecked. This study assessed mislabelled commercial frozen fish fillets in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. DNA barcode analysis of cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) was used to systematically identify 55 species samples comprising 12 common fish name labels sampled from selected supermarkets. DNA sequences of 8 samples failed to amplify, while 5 out of the remaining 47 samples were mislabelled (10.6%). The primary substituted fish was the imported freshwater striped catfish Pangasianodon hypophthalmus labelled as dory, cod and flatfish with a substitution rate of 60%. Additionally, the study also revealed a potential problem regarding the use of generic fish names for Malaysian product labels. Five sample fillets were labelled as “ikan kerapu” or as grouper, comprising four different grouper species exposing consumers to a potential health risk. In conclusion, mislabelling is rampant in Malaysia and poses a problem in the seafood industry. Although its economic impact currently appears insignificant, potential health risks remain high due to issues of generalised product labelling.

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https://www.boldsystems.org/ Accessed 10 August 2021
https://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/msa/clustalo/

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Acknowledgements

We like to thank the anonymous reviewers whose comments and suggestions helped improve this manuscript. This study was funded by the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia research grant Laureate-2013-004 awarded to SMG. The scholarship to NASR was funded by the MyBrain15 Scholarship under the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia for an MSc study which this work originated from.

Funding

This study was funded by the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia research grant, Laureate-2013-004 awarded to SMG. The scholarship to NASR was funded by the MyBrain15 Scholarship under the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia.

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Department of Earth Sciences and Environment, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
Nor’Adhlin Sofia Razali, Yosni Bakar & Shahriman Mohd Ghazali
Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
Norfarhan Mohd-Assaad

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Nor’Adhlin Sofia Razali
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Yosni Bakar
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Norfarhan Mohd-Assaad
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Shahriman Mohd Ghazali
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SMG, YB and NASR conceived and planned the experiments. NASR carried out the experiments. YB, NSR and NMA contributed to the analysis and interpretation of the results. NASR and SMG took the lead in writing the manuscript. All authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript.

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Correspondence to Shahriman Mohd Ghazali.

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Razali, N.S., Bakar, Y., Mohd-Assaad, N. et al. Mislabelled frozen fish fillets in the Klang Valley in Malaysia and its potential impact on consumers. J Consum Prot Food Saf 17, 145–154 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00003-022-01373-1

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Received: 13 March 2021
Revised: 28 January 2022
Accepted: 03 February 2022
Published: 28 February 2022
Issue Date: June 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00003-022-01373-1

Keywords

Food fraud
Mislabelled food
DNA barcoding
Seafood safety
Cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI)
Pangasianodon hypophthalmus

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