After high school students revealed that a quarter of the fish in New York City sushi samples were mislabeled, consumer groups headed for grocery stores and found about the same portion mislabeled at the seafood counter. Then last summer students tested herbal teas and found 35 percent included unlisted ingredients, including grass and weeds. Cheap DNA testing is now widely available to the general public with commercial labs charging around $20 to analyze a fish sample. Anyone who owns the equipment can test for about $1 a sample. Students and consumer groups are showing the new power of biotechnology. But only routine testing and labeling by suppliers, restaurants and grocery retailers will protect the public. Now the Boston Globe has run a two part series on restaurants in Massachusetts selling fish of species inferior to those they advertise on their menus. Reporters found that half of the fish they DNA-tested were mislabeled at restaurants. Below are links to the stories and an interactive database of findings.

On the menu, but not on your plate (Part 1) by Jenn Abelson and Beth Daley, Oct. 23, 211.
From sea to sushi bar, a system open to abuse (Part 2) by Abelson and Daley, Oct. 24, 2011.

Mary Graham, co-director — Transparency Policy Project