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04-05-2015 11:23 AM
Sorry about the format. This is how I received it.
Boop
> The Maryland> Crab In Your Crab Cake is Probably
> Fake
>
>
>
>
>
First, we discovered
> that the fish in our sushi isn't what it claims to
be;
> then, that 30% of U.S.
> shrimp is making fools of us. Now, a new
report from the
> conservation group
> Oceana finds that your tasty Maryland
crab cake isn't
> safe from seafood fraud,
> either. A full 38% of
Maryland
> crab cakes the group
> tested contained imported crab from places
as far away as
> Indonesia and Thailand
> instead of Maryland blue
>
crab."Local rare delicacies in
> seafood are frequently mislabeled because
they’re not
> widely available," says
> Dr. Kimberly Warner, report author
and senior scientist at
> Oceana. "Once you
> take off the shell of the blue
crab and mix it into a patty,
> it’s hard to tell
> what it is you’re
eating."
> Warner and her colleagues went to
> restaurants in the Maryland
and Washington DC area and
> collected 90 crab cakes.
> The researchers sent
them to a lab for DNA testing to
> determine the species of
> the crab in the
cakes. 38% of the crab cakes sold as local
> blue crab didn’t
> contain any
local blue crab at all; instead, they were
> stuffed with imported
> canned
swimming crab, mostly from the Indo-Pacific region.
> The scientists
>
identified eight species, besides blue crabs, in the
> supposedly blue crab
>
cakes.
>
> The researchers found fraud regardless of a venue's
> price
point. And all that fraud is economically motivated,
> Warner says. When
>
menus described jumbo lump crab cakes as coming from
> Maryland, they were
$2.12
> higher than those that didn't specify a region.
>
> Your chances
of getting actual
> Maryland blue crab varied depending
> on where
geographically you dined in or around
> Maryland. Nearly half of crab
> cakes
found in Annapolis and Baltimore were
> mislabeled. Ocean City and Washington,
D.C., had
> "fraud" levels of about
> 38%. Your best chance of
> getting a
real Maryland crab
> cake is on the Eastern Shore, the researchers found,
where
> only one crab cake
> out of 11 was mislabeled.
>
> "This is kind
of a
> not-so-secret secret in this area," says Steve Vilnit,
> Director of
Fisheries
> Marketing director for the Maryland Department of Natural
>
Resources and a
> contributor to the report. "Maryland does not produce
>
enough crabmeat to supply
> all the restaurants in the region...but many
>
consumers—tourists and even
> locals—come to this area and think they’re
buying local
> crab meat because we’re
> simply in Maryland." The sad fact,
he says, is that not
> many restaurants use
> local crab meat.
> Maryland
blue crab is considered a "best choice"
> or "good
> alternative" according
to the Monterey Bay
> Aquarium's Seafood Watch 2015
> recommendations.
Ironically, though, it's often
> substituted with crab the same
> regulations
mark "avoid", due to the use of
> destructive fishing gear like bottom
>
trawling, an industrial fishing method that ensnares any
> kind of marine
species
> caught in its path.
> In March, a presidential task force released
an action
> plan to combat seafood mislabeling and illegal and
> unregulated
fishing,
> including starting a traceability program and getting rid of
>
harmful fishery
> subsidies that fuel overfishing by 2020.
> In the meantime,
however, steering
> clear of seafood fraud is largely up to you. "We always
>
say to ask more
> questions from whoever you’re buying your seafood from,
>
whether a restaurant or
> grocery store or market," says report author
Warner.
> "If the people who sell us
> seafood don’t understand that we care
about that
> information, then they’re not
> going to provide it."
> Buy
traceable seafood, the study authors say, which
> follows fish from where it's
caught or farmed up until
> it arrives on your plate,
> when you can, she
says.
04-05-2015 11:40 AM
I am getting closer to becoming a vegetarian every day.
04-05-2015 12:02 PM
Sadly, lots of the fish/seafood we're buying isn't what we're told.
Plenty of the fish we buy even from reputable restaurants and fish vendors just isn't what it's labeled. I have no idea about the frozen crab cakes offered by QVC, Costco, Wegman's, whoever. I just have never found any that thrilled me.
I have had crab cakes that I've really liked, but they came in restaurant meals where I still had no idea if I was truly eating crab although I like to think I can tell the difference. And I've had them in private homes where I was absolutely certain I was eating crab because I saw the raw ingredients.
04-05-2015 12:06 PM
On 4/5/2015 depglass said:I am getting closer to becoming a vegetarian every day.
I know what you mean. If you go vegetarian, you only have to worry about whether it was genetically modified and grown organically.
04-05-2015 12:09 PM
I recently discovered in the frozen section a package with a yummy picture of crab cakes on the package labeled 'lump crab cakes'. Flipped the box over and read the ingredients. First ingredient listed, imitation crab.
04-05-2015 01:16 PM
I never thought there was much, if any, real crab in a crab cake...at least those purchased in a grocery. I seldom buy anything other than fresh fish, and even then, you have to be careful. Wild caught is the healthiest, as unlike farm raised, they aren't fed growth hormones.
04-05-2015 01:24 PM
I live in the Pacific Northwest where we have Dungeness crabs. We had crab cakes last week but they were made by a local high end market (and not cheap!). I love just plain cooked crab better than crab cakes - it is now over $48 a pound cooked and cleaned. I never order crab cakes in restaurants because I don't like all the filler.
04-06-2015 02:31 PM
On 4/5/2015 DiAnne said:I live in the Pacific Northwest where we have Dungeness crabs. We had crab cakes last week but they were made by a local high end market (and not cheap!). I love just plain cooked crab better than crab cakes - it is now over $48 a pound cooked and cleaned. I never order crab cakes in restaurants because I don't like all the filler.
Yes, I was shocked last year to see the huge price increase in this crab. We usually eat it Christmas and New Year's Eve, marinated, the best crab ever. I have made crab cakes with it, but only adding a very few ingredients so the taste of the crab is not diminished, but it is so sweet and juicy, I can eat it with nothing on it, but with a little mayo mixed in and used as a spread, nothing better.
04-06-2015 04:02 PM
I have posted before about "true" MD crabmeat. Sooo, living on the Eastern Shore of MD, I get my crabmeat right off the dock where it is picked in the morning, packaged, and sold that day. If any of you come to MD, visit Crisfield - that's off the dock fresh. Now, I never buy a crabcake in a restaurant, hence me buying my own crabmeat, but yes, beware - many MD restaurants, including some on the Shore, advertise "MD style" crabcakes - these are typically crabcakes made with crabmeat "the MD way" from crabs imported from the Carolinas or at times, Asia. Be sure to ask your server if the crabcakes were actually made with MD blue crab. And crabmeat time is upon us!!! yeaaaa
04-06-2015 04:05 PM
On 4/6/2015 bmorechick said:I have posted before about "true" MD crabmeat. Sooo, living on the Eastern Shore of MD, I get my crabmeat right off the dock where it is picked in the morning, packaged, and sold that day. If any of you come to MD, visit Crisfield - that's off the dock fresh. Now, I never buy a crabcake in a restaurant, hence me buying my own crabmeat, but yes, beware - many MD restaurants, including some on the Shore, advertise "MD style" crabcakes - these are typically crabcakes made with crabmeat "the MD way" from crabs imported from the Carolinas or at times, Asia. Be sure to ask your server if the crabcakes were actually made with MD blue crab. And crabmeat time is upon us!!! yeaaaa
LOL.....ALMOST......just paid $90 a dozen for steamed crabs a week ago and i am not even sure they were maryland crabs......maryland crabmeat right now is $35 a pound for jumbo lump!
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