Seventeen years analysing mislabelling from DNA barcodes: Towards hake sustainability

Mislabelling is a common threat to fisheries sustainability. Over the last decades, molecular tools have been established as the main resource to detect mislabelling. This study focuses on these efforts in the genus Merluccius. A meta-analysis approach is taken in order to detect trends on mislabelling directions for the last 17 years. A total of 1291 DNA-identified hake products from 45 different studies were compiled. An increase in number of publications using DNA forensics to detect mislabelling in hake can be seen along the studied time period. However, representation of different hake species varies, i.e. Pacific hakes are underrepresented. Different risk of mislabelling has been identified depending on the regions: Highest risk of mislabelling was found in African hake species (only 20.53% of African hake were correctly labelled). Furthermore, a high amount of hake products with incomplete labels (e.g. not reporting the species) were unevenly distributed. Directionality in mislabelling was detected for all cases between sympatric species. Differences in mislabelling rates were found for different regions (Africa, Europe, Pacific America and South America). While a decrease in mislabelling was reported between 2011 and 2014, this has not being sustained over time, as more recent data show an increase in mislabelling rates. Altogether, rigorous monitoring of product authenticity is called for, with special attention to the more vulnerable species.

Automated summary

This study focuses on the trend of mislabelling in the genus Merluccius over the past 17 years using meta-analysis. The results indicate variations in mislabelling risk across different regions, with African hake species showing the highest risk.