'That's not Octopus,' Class Claims

[hollysmom]

That's not Octopus,' Class Claims

As octopus prices spiral due to worldwide overfishing, an importer is mislabeling its jumbo squid as octopus to trick consumers, a diner claims in a federal class action.
Luis Diego Zapata Fonseca sued Vigo Importing Co. on Tuesday, "on behalf of purchasers of Vigo octopus products that Vigo had labeled and sold as octopus when in reality the products contained jumbo squid, which is significantly cheaper and of a lower quality than octopus."
The nine-count lawsuit, alleging fraud, false advertising, unfair competition and other charges, contains a wealth of information about the octopus, which, like the squid, is a cephalopod.

I remember trying to tell the manager of a small company I worked for when they got fis instead of scallops with a big price differential. But they didn't care so much, did not come from their pockets, So I put it in a yelp comment, heh.

[SeattleVet]

1. Many species and fishing methods for octopus.

Many species are much more sustainable than others. Here's the Monterey Bay Aquarium's "Seafood Watch" recommendations on octopus. (Giant Pacific Octopus is a 'Best Choice', while all others are either a 'Good Alternative' or 'Avoid', based mostly on source country and fishing methods.)

http://www.seafoodwatch.org/seafood-recommendations/groups/octopus

When buying seafood I always check my Seafood Watch pocket card or their app (the app is usually a little more current - recommendations change over time, and I don't always remember to garb the most recent hardcopy). A lot of the restaurants and fish markets here in Seattle only offer the Seafood Watch 'Best Choice' selections.

Lots of good information here on how to select the most sustainable choices:

http://www.seafoodwatch.org

[hollysmom]

2. interesting, did not know, thank you