Public awareness of seafood mislabeling

Savannah J Ryburn; Wilker M Ballantine; Florencia M Loncan; Olivia G Manning; Meggan A Alston; Blaire Steinwand; John F Bruno

doi:10.7717/peerj.13486

Public awareness of seafood mislabeling

PeerJ. 2022 Jun 28:10:e13486. doi: 10.7717/peerj.13486. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Savannah J Ryburn¹, Wilker M Ballantine², Florencia M Loncan², Olivia G Manning², Meggan A Alston², Blaire Steinwand^{2

3}, John F Bruno²

Affiliations

¹ Environment, Ecology and Energy Program, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States.
² The Department of Biology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States.
³ Department of Zoology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Abstract

A substantial portion of seafood is mislabeled, causing significant impacts to human health, the environment, the economy, and society. Despite the large scientific literature documenting seafood mislabeling the public's awareness of seafood mislabeling is unknown. We conducted an online survey to assess the public's awareness and perceptions of seafood mislabeling. Of the 1,216 respondents, 38% had never heard of seafood mislabeling and 49% were only 'vaguely familiar' with it. After being provided the definition of seafood mislabeling 95% had some degree of concern. Respondents were the most concerned about environmental impacts caused by seafood mislabeling and the least concerned about the social justice implications. Respondents who were also more concerned and familiar with seafood mislabeling stated that they would be more likely to purchase seafood from a vendor where the labeling was independently verified.

Keywords: Public awareness; Seafood mislabeling; Survey.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Humans
Seafood* / analysis
Surveys and Questionnaires

Associated data

figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.16679848

Grants and funding

The project was funded by the Department of Biology at UNC-CH and funded by the QEP (Quality Enhancement Plan) CURE (Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience) initiative. The project was also funded by the National Science Foundation (OCE #1737071 to John F. Bruno). There was no additional external funding received for this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.