Monday, April 02, 2007
04/2007: Beware - Imposter fish in St Petersburg!
The next time you order one of Florida’s famous ‘grouper sandwiches’ you may not be getting the real deal. State investigators bought grouper dishes at 24 restaurants and sent samples to labs for testing; 17 were found not to be grouper but hake, emperor fish and bream.
And grouper isn’t alone in being impersonated, jumbo fluke has donned the wig and dark glasses to masquerade as halibut and Chinese frozen ocean scallops are passing themselves off as fresh bay scallops.
The restaurants tested haven’t admitted to doing anything wrong, several claim they bought and paid for grouper from their suppliers, but some have reimbursed the state for the costs of the investigation and agreed not to sell any more grouper fakes.
The next time you order one of Florida’s famous ‘grouper sandwiches’ you may not be getting the real deal. State investigators bought grouper dishes at 24 restaurants and sent samples to labs for testing; 17 were found not to be grouper but hake, emperor fish and bream.
And grouper isn’t alone in being impersonated, jumbo fluke has donned the wig and dark glasses to masquerade as halibut and Chinese frozen ocean scallops are passing themselves off as fresh bay scallops.
The restaurants tested haven’t admitted to doing anything wrong, several claim they bought and paid for grouper from their suppliers, but some have reimbursed the state for the costs of the investigation and agreed not to sell any more grouper fakes.
# posted by hotelreviewer @ 3:42 pm 
