BOSTON — Those plump and tempting scallops behind the fish counter glass might be a lot smaller than they look — a sodium-based compound can bloat scallops well past their actual size. And that pollock fillet isn't such a good deal if the price includes the layers of ice glazed onto it to keep it fresh.
This "overglazing" rips off consumers, as does so-called "soaking" of scallops, which can also alter the taste of the shellfish. At the International Boston Seafood Show this week, a top federal seafood quality officer announced his agency was increasing efforts to stop these and other types of seafood fraud.
"We've decided we're going to take on the economic fraud concern," said Steven Wilson, chief quality officer at the National Marine Fisheries Service's seafood inspection program.
Perhaps the best known kind of seafood fraud is species substitution, when sellers secretly replace a prized species with a similar tasting, cheaper fish — say, whiting substituted for grouper, or mako shark for swordfish.
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