Lack of evidence blocks toothfish mislabelling investigation

Following the publication of their paper (Marko et al., Current Biology, Volume 21, Number 16, R622), the investigation team approached Dr Marko and co-authors, Holly Nance and Kimberley Guynn, with four requests for the sampling information necessary to establish whether or not the products tested in their investigation were, in fact, mislabelled. The information required is:

• Place of sampling
• Date and time of sampling
• MSC Chain of Custody (Logo License) certificate number
• Product form

The MSC says that, to date, none of the data requested have been supplied, although the team has been informed that some of the data required will be made available in the future.

Dr David Agnew, MSC Standards Director, said: “We take supply chain integrity extremely seriously and we’re very disappointed that, over a month after we undertook to investigate these mislabelling claims, we have been unable to progress our investigation due to lack of sampling data from this study.

“Without such data, we are unable to make a judgment about whether product substitution has taken place at some point, leading to mislabelling. Once we have these data, we will conduct a full review and present the outcome.”

The MSC conducted its study on the verification of toothfish supply chain integrity in 2009, and says it found no evidence for mislabelling. The Marko et al.study used toothfish sampled in 2008.

Although the MSC is confident that its sampling in 2009 did not identify any likelihood of product substitution, monitoring the integrity of supply chains remains a priority for the MSC and will continue in the future. Amy Jackson, Deputy Standards Director and the MSC lead on supply chain integrity, said: “Despite the age of the findings published by Marko

., should relevant and comprehensive data be supplied by Dr Marko and his colleagues, the MSC will still undertake to investigate them”.