Most Common Food Frauds in Restaurants

Food adulteration in restaurants can be as simple as advertising items on a menu then serving a completely different ingredient than what is listed – intentionally or not. It may seem like a simple way to cut costs but substituting ingredients without telling customers can put their health in jeopardy, damage your restaurant's reputation, and cost you financially. Some of the most common food frauds include substituting seafood, beef, and local ingredients with a less significant product.

Less Than Local

In April 2016, Tampa Bay Times food critic Laura Reiley published a thorough, investigative piece detailing food fraud in the Tampa Bay area, detailing how some restaurant owners claimed to buy from local providers that, it turns out, never sold to them.³ California's farm-to-table fraud is the same story: Restaurants claimed to use local, organic produce from area farms, but didn't actually buy from them.⁴

With farm-to-table concepts flourishing in the market and consumers remaining interested in the sustainability of the foods they eat, it's no surprise that many restaurants want to benefit from the movement without spending the capital necessary to procure locally cultivated ingredients. Restaurant menus can be greenwashed to profit from the idea of regional sourcing without supporting the local industry.

Seafood Fraud

While fraud in farm-to-table restaurants might be a more recent revelation, seafood fraud has been an issue for much longer. Industry publication SeaFood Business pondered the difference between langostino and lobster back in 2006.⁵ In 2016, Inside Edition investigated restaurants using seafood substitutes – including langostino and whiting – in addition to or instead of lobster.⁶

An Oceana seafood study conducted from 2010 to 2012 found that of 1,215 samples, 33 percent were mislabeled nationwide, including as many as 74 percent in sushi venues and 38 percent in other restaurants.⁷ Some of these were harmless, like tilapia being sold as red snapper, but many places sold escolar as white tuna. Nicknamed "the ex-lax fish" and also labeled as butterfish or oilfish, escolar is a snake mackerel that has been banned in culinary use in Japan and Italy for the unpleasant to severe gastrointestinal issues it can cause.⁸

Escolar vs. Tuna

• Escolar is a snake mackerel white in color. It's often disguised as white tuna in restaurants and is known to cause an upset stomach.
• Tuna is a mackerel with a pinkish hue. Albacore tuna is often called white tuna but isn't completely white because of the pink color. This type of fish doesn't cause the gastrointestinal issues escolar causes.

Oceana's study found the highest occurrence of mislabeling happened at sushi venues, so it might not come as a surprise that what's in your favorite sushi roll probably isn't real crab. Often called imitation crab or crab sticks, the surimi typically used in California rolls is made from several fish that are ground up and finished off with artificial additives. While this is often used in sushi in place of crab, menus may not clarify if the restaurant serves crab meat or the imitation.⁹

Recently, restaurant chains have started facing lawsuits over the content of their tuna. Patrons claim the tuna isn't 100 percent tuna and contains other proteins: cattle, pork, and chicken.¹⁰ Supplementing different ingredients for tuna is harmful to people with dietary and restrictions, food allergies, and is disrespectful for religious reasons.

Kobe or Wagyu?

If you're more interested in serving red meat than seafood, menu mislabeling for profit can still rear its ugly head. Kobe beef, imported from Japan, is considered a superior – and vastly more expensive – offering, but according to Inside Edition, as of July 2016, only nine American restaurants are certified to serve it.¹¹ That hasn't stopped hundreds of restaurants across the country from listing it on their menus and charging the high prices associated with the beef. Any restaurant selling Kobe beef should be able to provide proof of its status, which is given out by the Kobe Beef Association to certified restaurants.

Avoiding Food Adulteration

Cheaper ingredient substitutions happen for various reasons: because a restaurant ran out of what was listed on the menu and hasn't printed new ones, isn't aware of a hiccup in its supply chain that led to a different ingredient being provided, or is willfully misleading customers about what is being offered because a higher price can be charged for the alleged ingredient. Although honest mistakes happen, substituting ingredients without telling customers is, no matter how you slice it, foodservice fraud. If recent investigations are any indication, it happens more often than we might like to believe.

As a consumer, knowing what produce is in season can help you realize when something on the menu might not be as fresh or local as it seems. If you have doubts about the authenticity of an ingredient, don't be afraid to ask the waiter for clarification or reassurance.

For chefs and restaurant owners, remember that misrepresenting your ingredients can lead to violations and fines. Most ingredients won't be available year-round and adjusting the menu to reflect what's available will give your restaurant credibility. You should also avoid advertising locally sourced ingredient unless you really are using them.

References

1. Farm Fakes: A History of Fraudulent Food. Modern Farmer. June 2022.
2. 21 U.S. Code 342 Adulterated Food. Legal Information Institute. June 2022.
3. At Tampa Bay farm-to-table restaurants, you’re being fed fiction. Tampa Bay Times. June 2022.
4. Farm to Fable. San Diego Magazine. June 2022.
5. Langostino vs. Lobster. Seafood Business. June 2022.
6. Lobster Dishes with Cheaper Seafood. Inside Edition. June 2022.
7. Ocenea Study Reveals Seafood Fraud Nationwide. Oceana. June 2022.
8. Use Caution When Eating Escolar. Kitchn. June 2022.
9. Imitation Crab Isn’t Crab at All. So What Exactly is it?. HuffPost. June 2022.
10. The Subway Tuna Lawsuit is Back. The Washington Post. June 2022.
11. Only 9 Restaurants in the US Serve Real Kobe Beef. Business Insider. June 2022.