Oceana Study Uncovers "Massive Crab Cake Fraud" in D.C. Area
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/youngandhungry/2015/04/01/oceana-study-uncovers-massive-crab-cake-fraud-in-d-c-area/
News item: a significant minority of crabcakes claiming to be from Maryland are actually from outside the country.
"The organization visited 86 restaurants throughout the D.C. and Maryland in 2014 and gathered samples of 90 crab cakes advertised as using "blue crab" or "Maryland crab." Oceana selected restaurants based on their online menus, but if the actual restaurant menu only listed "crab cake," the investigators would ask servers to confirm whether it was blue crab or not. They then sent the specimens to a lab that used DNA testing to determine the crab species. Nearly four out of 10 crab cakes contained crab imported from elsewhere, including Indo-Pacific waters and the Mexican Pacific coast. Much of this imported crab is fished unsustainably or even illegally. Oceana did not include crab cakes labeled as "Maryland-style" in the study, although those can be just as misleading."