Lab analysis of Subway tuna sandwiches fails to identify tuna DNA

[Eugene]

Original reporting: The Big Tuna Sandwich Mystery (New York Times)

______________________________________________________________________

Source: The Guardian

Lab analysis of Subway tuna sandwiches fails to identify tuna DNA

New York Times commissions test of 60in worth of tuna sandwiches but researchers were unable to pinpoint a species

Alexandra Villarreal
Tue 22 Jun 2021 16.04 BST

A lab test commissioned by the New York Times failed to identify any tuna DNA in a series of Subway tuna sandwiches.

A reporter acquired “more than 60in worth of Subway tuna sandwiches” from three Los Angeles storefronts, then engaged a specialized fish-testing lab. Researchers were unable to pinpoint a species.

“There’s two conclusions,” a lab spokesperson told the Times. “One, it’s so heavily processed that whatever we could pull out, we couldn’t make an identification.

“Or we got some and there’s just nothing there that’s tuna.”

In February, when Inside Edition ran a similar test based on samples from New York, a Florida-based lab, Applied Food Technologies, did confirm the presence of tuna.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/22/subway-sandwiches-tuna-lab-test

______________________________________________________________________

Source: New York Times

The Big Tuna Sandwich Mystery

A lawsuit against America’s largest sandwich chain has raised questions about America’s most popular canned fish. We tried to answer one: Is Subway selling tuna?

By Julia Carmel
Published June 19, 2021
Updated June 21, 2021

Canned tuna is high in protein, low in fat and by far the most popular shelf-stable seafood in the United States.

It can also be mysterious, questionable and scandalous. As The Washington Post reported in late January, Subway — the world’s largest sandwich chain — is currently facing a class-action lawsuit in the state of California that claims its tuna sandwiches “are completely bereft of tuna as an ingredient.”

After the news broke, the jokes swiftly followed. Jessica Simpson (who famously didn’t know whether Chicken of the Sea was chicken or tuna back in 2003) tweeted: “It’s OK @SUBWAY. It IS confusing.” Jimmy John’s, a competitor, started sending email blasts with subjects like: “Tuna 👏 Sandwiches 👏 Should 👏 Use 👏 Real 👏 Tuna 👏.”

Subway, for its part, has categorically denied the allegations. “There simply is no truth to the allegations in the complaint that was filed in California,” a spokeswoman wrote in an email to The New York Times. “Subway delivers 100 percent cooked tuna to its restaurants, which is mixed with mayonnaise and used in freshly made sandwiches, wraps and salads that are served to and enjoyed by our guests.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/19/style/subway-tuna-sandwich-lawsuit.html

[Goonch]

1. WICKED

[getagrip_already]

2. wicked tuna is a fake depiction of commercial fishing for bluefin tuna...

It's appropriate subway is using them as a prop for a sandwich that, if it really contains tuna, wouldn't contain bluefin tuna.

Tuna used for canning and sandwhichwes varies from longfin to albacore to yellowfin to even the lesser tunas such as skipjack. BFT is not used for sandwiches.......

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. This

[smirkymonkey]

4. Oh, how sickening.

I love fresh tuna steaks, or sushi but there is almost nothing I find more disgusting (food-wise, that is) than tuna salad with mayonnaise. Especially when it looks just like mush.

I honestly can't even stand to watch someone else eat it and I feel sick to my stomach just looking at it when I am at a deli counter. Ok, I have to stop talking about it now because it's making me queasy.

[USALiberal]

12. Wow, that seems like something you need help! Nt

[obamanut2012]

16. 100% same

[SaintLouisBlues]

5. It's Lil' Lisa Brand Seafood Slurry

[Maru Kitteh]

6. I have never had to worry about not being able to identify cucumbers,

tomatoes, onions, olives and lettuce.



Nope.

[gldstwmn]

10. Vegetables have GOD'S. We need to label our food better.

[area51]

7. I'm not saying it's aliens...

[Blue_true]

8. Be careful.

“Cooked” tuna is said to not present tuna DNA because the DNA breaks down during the cooking process.

A more complete analysis would test samples from every place that sells tuna and test each sample.

I believe all tuna that gets sold to sandwich shops undergoes a cooking process.

[Eugene]

14. Cooking degrades DNA, but there are established PCR tests

to identify species in both raw and cooked meat.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0956713519304943

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51776045_Effect_of_method_of_cooking_on_identification_of_heat_processed_beef_using_polymerase_chain_reaction_PCR_technique

[Blue_true]

20. Was the test that was done on the Subway tuna a PCR test.

I believe that I read it wasn’t.

I don’t eat ground meat outside of my home now, that means tuna, hamburgers.

I will eat chili if it is has a reputation for being good, any thing bad that survives a good chili cooking technique deserves to kill me.

[Eugene]

21. From the original NYT article...

The Big Tuna Sandwich Mystery

So, I procured more than 60 inches worth of Subway tuna sandwiches. I removed and froze the tuna meat, then shipped it across the country to a commercial food testing lab. I spent weeks chatting with tuna experts. I waited, and waited, until the lab results came back.

...

With all of that in mind, I began searching for a commercial lab that could test a sample of Subway’s product. A handful of them politely declined my inquiries, citing technical limitations and company policies that made my tuna ineligible for analysis. Eventually, I found myself on the phone with a spokesman for a lab that specializes in fish testing. He agreed to test the tuna but asked that the lab not be named in this article, as he did not want to jeopardize any opportunities to work directly with America’s largest sandwich chain.

For about $500, his lab could conduct a PCR test — which rapidly makes millions or billions of copies of a specific DNA sample — and try to tell me whether this substance included one of five different tuna species.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/19/style/subway-tuna-sandwich-lawsuit.html

[Blue_true]

22. He mentioned a PCR test but he didn't say that he had that test done.

I read the article two or three days ago and what I left with was that the first lab that he sent the sandwich sample to was not the one he mentioned later in the article (the one that goes the PCR test).

The fact that the second lab won’t rule out working for Subway is interesting. Seems that it could work for either class action lawsuit lawyers or Subway, either way it doesn’t lose.

[TheBlackAdder]

9. It's like the scam fish sold and sourced out of Florida, a lot is not what is advertised.

.

If you see Florida, and it's a high-end fish, you're probably getting ripped off with lower-grade fish.

.

[pecosbob]

11. Seafood industry labeling is a joke

Fifty to seventy percent of all seafood product origin claims are lies.

[USALiberal]

13. Link to that source?

[hunter]

17. Actual species names are important. Common names like "tuna" might not mean anything.

"Catfish" from Vietnamese fish farms, Pangasianodon hypophthalmus is not the same as catfish, Ictalurus punctatus from U.S.A. fish farms.

They were both sold here as "catfish" but now the catfish from Vietnam is called "Swai"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catfish_Dispute

[hunter]

15. Commercial hunting of wild birds was outlawed a long time ago.

Commercial hunting of fish should be outlawed for similar reasons.

Passenger pigeons were not an unlimited resource.

Neither are wild fish.

This looks a lot like commercial fishing:

There were a wide variety of other methods used to capture and kill passenger pigeons. Nets were propped up to allow passenger pigeons entry, then closed by knocking loose the stick that supported the opening, trapping twenty or more pigeons inside. Tunnel nets were also used to great effect, and one particularly large net was capable of catching 3,500 pigeons at a time. These nets were used by many farmers on their own property as well as by professional trappers. Food would be placed on the ground near the nets to attract the pigeons. Decoy or "stool pigeons" (sometimes blinded by having their eyelids sewn together) were tied to a stool. When a flock of pigeons passed by, a cord would be pulled that made the stool pigeon flutter to the ground, making it seem as if it had found food, and the flock would be lured into the trap. Salt was also frequently used as bait, and many trappers set up near salt springs. At least one trapper used alcohol-soaked grain as bait to intoxicate the birds and make them easier to kill. Another method of capture was to hunt at a nesting colony, particularly during the period of a few days after the adult pigeons abandoned their nestlings, but before the nestlings could fly. Some hunters used sticks to poke the nestlings out of the nest, while others shot the bottom of a nest with a blunt arrow to dislodge the pigeon. Others cut down a nesting tree in such a way that when it fell, it would also hit a second nesting tree and dislodge the pigeons within. In one case, 6 km2 (1,500 acres) of large trees were speedily cut down to get birds, and such methods were common. A severe method was to set fire to the base of a tree nested with pigeons; the adults would flee and the juveniles would fall to the ground. Sulfur was sometimes burned beneath the nesting tree to suffocate the birds, which fell out of the tree in a weakened state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_pigeon

Furthermore, fishing crews in some nations are essentially slaves.

My personal opinions about seafood are somewhat radical.

For others concerned about the oceans this is a good resource:

https://www.seafoodwatch.org/

Seafood Watch began 20 years ago as a special exhibition at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Today, the Aquarium's Seafood Watch program is a leader in the global sustainable seafood movement. Over the years, Seafood Watch has grown from advising consumers to working directly with businesses and governments around the world — increasing both the market demand for, and a reliable supply of, sustainable seafood.

[SoonerPride]

18. You can't eat real food for $5.

Sad, but true.

[Vinca]

19. I've heard of some restaurants cutting white fish into little biscuit-shaped things and calling

them scallops and there's that mystery fish stuff at the grocery store that is supposed to be faux crab or lobster, but I've never heard of fake tuna fish. That's just bizarre. Why would they even do that? It's not that expensive.