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This Is Even Better than Making Up 'Orange Roughy' to Get People to Eat Slimehead

Aug 22, 2008

Before you pony up for red snapper, better dust off your DNA fingerprinting kit. This New York Times story reports on a couple of high-school students who tested 60 samples of fish sold at restaurants and found that a quarter of those were mislabeled -- generally as a much more expensive kind of seafood than what was actually being served. The article adds:

What may be most impressive about the experiment is the ease with which the students accomplished it. Although the [genetic] testing technique is at the forefront of research, the fact that anyone can take advantage of it by sending samples off to a laboratory meant the kind of investigative tools once restricted to Ph.D.’s and crime labs can move into the hands of curious diners and amateur scientists everywhere.

 

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