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Bait and Switch

Posted on: Tuesday, 16 May 2006, 15:06 CDT

By Mladen Rudman, Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach

May 16--How do you know the fish fillet is the kind you ordered? Some companies may be banking on the resemblance to fool buyers

Niceville's Stan Peters has been wondering for a long time if the fish he orders at a restaurant is the fish he gets.

The fisherman and fan of eating out believes fillet switching -- replacing costlier fish with cheaper ones -- is a problem.

"I don't mind the price as much as somebody trying to sell me something that it is not," he said.

Peters recalled dinner at a local restaurant some time ago where fillets of two or three different fish that had been ordered looked exactly alike when served.

He said he has no way of proving his suspicion about fillet switching but is sure it happens.

He may be right.

The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida recently indicted two men and six companies in an alleged baitand-switch scheme involving fish fillets.

Danny D. Nguyen, who managed two Panama City fish import businesses, has been charged with falsely marketing snakehead fish or farm-raised catfish packaged in Vietnam and shipped to the United States as grouper or two varieties of freshwater fish.

Four companies in Vietnam and Buu Huy also were indicted for allegedly taking part in the scheme. Nguyen didn't return telephone calls last week. Huy was arrested in Belgium last week, according to prosecutors.

The federal indictment announced last week poses a question: How do people ordering fish at a restaurant or buying it at a grocery store know they're getting what they paid for?

According to an unrelated fake grouper bust announced a week ago, this one by the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in southern Florida, farm-raised Vietnamese "broadhead" catfish sell wholesale for $2.50 to $3 per pound. Grouper goes for $5 to $6 per pound.

The 42-count federal indictment alleges Nguyen, with help from the Vietnamese canneries, conspired to label sutchi catfish, basa catfish or snakeheads as grouper, bass or channa to avoid American antidumping duties, which would have cut into his profit margin.

More than a million pounds of catfish or snakehead were brought into America by Nguyen's companies starting in May 2002, with about a quarter of that total being seized as part of the investigation, according to the indictment.

The illegally labeled fish allegedly were sold throughout the United States and Canada.

"The vast majority of the shipment was marketed as caught-in-the-wild grouper," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen P. Preisser. "This is all fillets, so you're not getting a head-on fish."

Identifying the fish simply by looking at the fillets was difficult, so prosecutors relied on DNA analysis, Preisser continued.

The indictment also suggests that at least some consumers of fish, which are marketed as healthier foods than beef or pork, probably paid more than they should have for fish they had no intention of buying in the first place.

Prosecutors said a majority of the catfish fillets were distributed outside Florida.

It's unclear if Nguyen's two companies sold to local seafood houses, though seven contacted in Okaloosa and Walton counties said they had no business dealings with Panhandle Trading Inc. or Panhandle Seafood Inc.

Harbor Docks restaurant owner and seafood wholesaler Charles Morgan agreed with Peters' assessment. Fish fillet switching is fairly common, he said.

"I'm not sure if there's any aspect of the food service industry where it's more of a problem," Morgan said about mislabeling fillets. "Fish aren't like chicken, pork or beef. They can grow plenty (of poultry and meat) to meet demand."

Morgan added that fish caught in the wild, especially popular table fare such as grouper or red snapper, are more difficult to find because stocks are declining. Labeling fish "fresh" when they've been frozen also is a widespread problem, he said.

Though there's no way for regular customers to distinguish between fillets -- tuna has different texture than, say, triggerfish -- Morgan encouraged them to be politely inquisitive.

"Just ask an honest question and, I'd like to think, you'll get an honest answer," the restaurateur said. "Let people know what it is and let them decide if they want to eat it."

Discovery of nearly 8,000 pounds of Vietnamese broadhead catfish labeled as wildcaught grouper at the Shifco Inc. food processing plant in Hialeah happened during a routine inspection by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Inspectors didn't have to do any fancy snooping to determine fish fillets were being mislabeled.

They observed workers removing fillets from boxes labeled "catfish" and putting them in boxes tagged "grouper."

"It literally occurred under our noses," said department spokesman Terence McElroy. Inspectors also intercepted a truckload of mislabeled fillets already on its way to consumers.

McElroy added the investigation continues. The department wants to know where the fillets were going and if other businesses had already received catfish fillets labeled as grouper.

Penalties for the company's conduct also are being evaluated, but it's unclear if criminal charges would be filed.

According to McElroy, the state has no way to quantify the extent of false fillet labeling in Florida.

"We hope it's not pervasive," he said. "I think it would be naïve not to think substitutions occur from time to time." Daily News Staff Writer Mladen Rudman can be reached at 863-1111, Ext. 443.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach

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Source: Northwest Florida Daily News

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