In this regard, the agency had to appeal to the General Prosecutor's Office. According to Elena Sarattseva, deputy head of Roskachestvo, instead of saury the manufacturer “uses sardine or herring.” According to the representative of the agency, this year alone there have been about 120 tests on products of different manufacturers, and in 45 cases it was found that “saury was substituted.”
The habitat of this rare fish in Russia is primarily the Kurils. The saury is even nicknamed the “night pearl” because it is caught only at night. A few years ago, the sea currents changed their path, and so the saury was carried far into the world's oceans. So, because of the increased costs, the volume of catching it has decreased.
Now some producers simply catch what is still left in the Far East. Others have started to buy raw material in Japan, China and South Korea. There are some dodgers who have simply taken the path of deception.
Today the “night pearl” is caught at least 100 miles away from the shore, and the fishing itself involves very serious costs. Predictably, the catch of saury has considerably decreased lately, but its sales have not decreased: as many cans with saury on the shelves there were, so much remains.
Since everything looks almost identical in open cans, the research labs finely chop everything, take DNA, test each piece. In just a few minutes, an expert can draw the appropriate conclusion. The cheating itself happens the moment the fish is packed in the container.
Now, the difference in price between the fake and real saury has already reached 260 rubles ($4.24.) But such fraud brings unscrupulous businessmen a profit of 600-700 million rubles ($9.78-11.41 mln) a year.
According to the Association of Fishery Industrial Enterprises of Primorye, this year the volume of counterfeit products “has already reached one million cans.” In connection with this blatant fact the organization’s representatives ask the Ministry of Industry and Trade to unify the control system and make its data open to the public. This will allow consumers to literally monitor the quality of the products offered online.
Meanwhile, representatives of some large shopping centers claim that when they receive information about the substitution of raw materials in canned fish, they are immediately removed from sale. According to the recommendations of Roskachestvo experts, first of all, the consumer should pay attention to the price, which should not be lower than 44 rubles ($0.72) per 100 grams, and if the price is lower, then, most likely, we are offered a fake.
It should be noted that there is a worldwide problem of tampering with the contents of canned fish. After analyzing research over the past two years in 40 countries, The Guardian newspaper found that in half of the cases there is mislabeling, and even in shrimp dishes there was pork DNA.
Of course, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation in connection with the Roskachestvo appeal should deal with the mass falsification of canned saury, the production of which in our country is still punished by only symbolic fines.