Abstract: Global fish consumption is increasing in tandem with population growth, resulting in the dilemma of overfishing. Overfished high-value fish are often replaced with other fish in markets. Therefore, the accurate identification of fish products in the market is important. In this study, full-DNA and mini-DNA barcoding were used to detect fish product fraud in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, People's Republic of China. The molecular results revealed that 39 (20.42%) of the 191 samples were inconsistent with the labels. The percentages of mislabeling of fresh, frozen, cooked, and canned fish products were 11.70, 20.00, 34.09, and 50.00%, respectively. The average Kimura two-parameter distances of mini-DNA barcoding within species and within genera were 0.56 and 6.42%, respectively, and those of full-DNA barcoding were 0.53 and 7.25%, respectively. Commercial fraud was evident in this study; most high-priced fish were replaced with low-priced fish with similar features. Our findings indicate that DNA barcoding is an effective tool for identifying fish products and could be used to enhance transparency and fair trade in domestic fisheries.
Keywords: Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene; DNA barcoding; Fish products; Identification; Mislabeling.
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