Restaurants plan DNA-certified
premium seafood
By ROD McGUIRK , Associated Press – Sunday, November 27, 2011
This week I read an article about a new science technology that tests seafood to see if it is labeled correctly and not as a different type of fish. This tool is called DNA barcoding. Basically this tool checks if food is really what you think it is. Currently this tool can test up to 167,000 species. This new DNA barcoding technology was built for consumers so they will know that what they are buying and eating is what they see being advertised. Studies have found that seafood items are often labeled incorrectly. Not only is this bad because you are paying more than the fish is actually worth but it can also be dangerous. According to the article, “In 2007, several people became seriously ill from eating illegally imported toxic pufferfish from China that had been mislabeled as monkfish to circumvent U.S. import restrictions.” Some studies have even shown endangered species being sold when labeled as different kind of fish. Scientists are working to add all 1.8 million species on Earth into a Barcode of Life DNA library. I think this tool could be very helpful to people with allergies, if in the future it could be used to test things other than fish and animal products. For example, if a kid had a peanut allergy maybe DNA barcoding could be used to tell if the food they want to eat is nut free. In conclusion, I think this tool could possibly be very important to our future. 
I never knew that there was a big problem with the labeling of fish products. I agree with you saying that they might make ones for every day foods.I think that would be very helpful.
ReplyDeleteThat is sooooo cool. You are right! It will help people in the future, even now it is helping a lot of people, but it is really bad that people don't put the correct labels and people can get a lot of diseases
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