« June 2007 Table of Contents 
Editor's Note: Time to consider restaurant COOL?
By Fiona Robinson, Editor in Chief
June 01, 2007
Seafood fraud touches everyone in the industry, from
retailers to restaurants to processors to distributors.
Industry veterans know this, and some, but not all, newcomers
are quick to learn the various ways some companies make an
extra buck. Product substitution, false weights, overglazing -
it's all driven by competition. This issue's Top Story, "Tricks
of the trade," by Assistant Editor James Wright discusses the
latest attempts to bring seafood fraud under wraps, including
the use of DNA testing and the National Fisheries Institute's
Economic Integrity Program.
One topic mentioned in the article is country-of-origin
labeling for seafood sold at foodservice outlets. At first I
denounced COOL for restaurants as a logistical nightmare. Of
the 935,000 restaurants in the United States, each one selling
seafood would have to mark its menu with species origins. Every
seafood company selling to the foodservice market would have to
ensure its product is properly labeled. While it's become the
norm for many upscale chefs to tout the origins of their
seafood, the mom-and-pop restaurants and casual-dining chains
typically do not. Policing a foodservice COOL program would
invite chaos.
But something has to be done to stop the continuous black
eye the entire industry sustains when one vendor or restaurant
gets caught cheating. Maybe if country-of-origin labeling for
seafood was extended to foodservice it would create a more
level playing field and the deceptive urge would be reduced?
I'm sure COOL at retail has not eliminated all fraud - it was
never intended as an anti-fraud measure, only to differentiate
domestic from imported seafood. Actions must be taken beyond
"using only trusted vendors" - the typical advice given to
seafood buyers, even from the government. If purchasing seafood
by that motto hasn't curbed the problem by now, it never
will.