Something's fishy

When you go to a fish market, it’s easy to tell a catfish from a grouper – and not just by the price. But once the fish is cooked, it’s harder to tell the two fish apart. Our investigation found a pattern of fish substitution, and in some cases, it could threaten the diner’s health.

We began by taking hidden cameras and going dining, but instead of eating all our fish, we scooped it into plastic bags, sealed it and shipped it to a lab where we paid for it to be DNA tested - to see if you're getting grouper when you order grouper. 

At Vinnie's on South Boulevard we ordered the signature grouper sandwich.  We also ordered grouper at RJ Gator's on University City Boulevard.

WCNC reporter Stuart Watson can be heard clearly on the hidden camera video asking, "That's grilled grouper right?"

The RJ Gator server replies "Yes sir."

And at Boardwalk Billy's in the University Shoppes, the server asks, "What you need, just a fried grouper sandwich?"

Watson replied, "Grouper sandwich, make it grilled."

We also tested sit-down restaurants: Bonefish Grill on Pineville-Matthews Road and McCormick & Schmick's in South Park.

Watson tells the McCormick & Schmick’s waiter, "I want to get grouper."

The SouthPark server says, “OK,” and adds "I would, think (it's) one of our best dishes."

We shipped our fish to the Guy Harvey Research Institute at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where Dr. Mahmood Shivji compared the DNA of the fish we ordered to federal databases of other known fish. 

“Actually I was shocked by the results in the sense that I didn't expect the magnitude of substitution that we found in these particular cases,” said Dr. Shivji.

Bonefish Grill was the only restaurant that actually served us grouper. The results: four out of five restaurants substituted another fish for grouper.

Dr. Shivji says, “The consumer is buying a mislabeled product and paying a higher price for it and that is really consumer fraud.”

But if it's not grouper - what are diners eating?

At Vinnie's - home of the original grouper sandwich - the "original grouper" sandwich is actually catfish.  When we went back to ask the manager about it - he said he had no idea.

The Vinnie’s Manager said, “We don't do that. We don't condone any misleading whatsoever.”

At the highest priced restaurant, McCormick & Schmick's at Southpark, the menu said we were getting fresh North Carolina black grouper from the Albemarle Sound for $22.95.  Our test showed the fish was actually in the croaker/drum family. Managers said they'll look into it.

The McCormick & Schmick’s managers said, “We never want to put something on that isn't what it is.  I'll get that date.  I'll go back through and I'll try to pinpoint it.” General Manager Matt Ryder later phoned to say the restaurant had modified the menu and the chef is now ordering fish with the skin on.  

The lab couldn't even match the DNA of the fish that was served as grouper at RJ Gators. They don't know what it is. One thing they do know:  “We were able to tell with complete certainty it was not a grouper,” said Dr. Shivji.

The manager at RJ Gators showed us the box the grouper filets are delivered in.  It's clearly labeled grouper, product of China.

“It's what we serve, (it) is grouper,” said RJ Gator’s manager.

And at Boardwalk Billy's, our lab found the grouper was again catfish. The kitchen manager also showed us the box which he insisted was grouper. 

“This is our grouper filets, here which is Asian grouper, definitely not catfish,” said the Broadwalk Billy manager.

But the so-called grouper is labeled "Pangasius Hypothalamus, product of Vietnam."

The Broadwalk Billy manager added, “I definitely believe in truth in advertising and anything on the menu is 100 percent what we say it is.”

But Pangasius Hypothalmus is just a fancy way of saying Asian catfish. It's not grouper.

In two cases the fish we got when we ordered grouper were really catfish.

And not just any old pond raised catfish.

Asian catfish – raised half a world away in Vietnam.

Then we learned that the same kind of fish has been banned in some southeastern states because it contained antibiotics banned in food by the FDA.

Keep in mind WCNC’S DNA tests found not one but two of the five grouper samples were really catfish.

The kitchen manager at Boardwalk Billy's in the University Shoppes in Charlotte produced the box he said the fish came from - labeled Pangasius Hypothalmus - Asian catfish - product of Vietnam.

Jeff McCord who represents the Catfish Institute, an industry trade group of American catfish farmers, told us such substitution is  “…out and out fraud and because some of the products are potentially harmful it's an extremely dangerous fraud.”

“Potentially harmful" because - as an Australian documentary distributed by the Catfish Institute shows - Vietnamese catfish are often raised in the polluted waters of the Mekong River.  The documentary depicts stagnant, putrid water where even the fish are dying.  And some Vietnamese farmers have kept the catfish alive by killing fungus with an industrial dye known to cause cancer.

Two years ago Alabama's Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks tested Vietnamese catfish and found traces of the cancer-causing dye plus antibiotics banned by the FDA, and barred the tainted fish from the state. Just last month the Vietnamese fish again tested positive for a type of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones which also have been banned by the FDA in the food supply.

“It’s very simple,” said Commissioner Sparks. “As long as they continue to use those wide-spectrum antibiotics and we catch it, we're going to ban it, we're going to turn it around and we're going to ship it back to them.”

Authorities in the catfish producing states of Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Georgia have also tested or banned the Asian catfish.

But at Boardwalk Billy’s the kitchen manager said it's common industry practice to serve the catfish as grouper. He said he knew a couple of restaurants that serve the exact same thing including Vinnie’s – a bar and restaurant. And our test found the "original grouper sandwich" at Vinnie's on South Boulevard in Charlotte is actually catfish as well.

The kitchen manager at Boardwalk Billy’s told us he had bought the same product from SYSCO and, in his words, “They all label it grouper.” SYSCO is one of the nation’s largest food suppliers. The manager at Vinnie’s on South Boulevard said SYSCO supplies his so-called grouper. But a local SYSCO manager denies this, saying SYSCO supplies some food to Vinnie's but not fish.

This isn’t the first time SYSCO has been mentioned in connection with a fish switch.

A fishing industry insider in the Florida panhandle tipped federal agents three years ago that SYSCO and other food dealers were buying catfish labeled as grouper. Last year a Panama City importer, Danny Nguyen, pleaded guilty to the federal fish scam and is currently serving a sentence in prison. 

In a sworn affidavit filed as part of a search warrant in the case, a confidential informant told federal authorities she alerted the food dealers to the swap, but she said most "...continued to buy and sell (catfish) as grouper because of the profit...."     

Asian catfish costs a third less than American catfish and much less than real grouper, which is caught in the ocean and not raised in ponds or aquaculture. Jeff McCord of the Catfish Institute said, “Chinese catfish goes for a dollar or more a pound less. Catfish filets sell for about three dollars a pound so a dollar difference is huge.” SYSCO was never charged in connection with the Panama City case. The company said it cleared itself in the seafood fraud case. An internal investigation concluded SYSCO never bought fish from the guilty importer.

WCNC also followed fish to another big supplier. Remember the box of fish labeled "grouper" that the manager showed us at RJ Gators in the University area of Charlotte? The box marked "Product of China.” Remember our test couldn't tell what this fish was - just that it wasn't grouper.

Also printed on the corner of the box from RJ Gators was the name of the distributor: Slade Gorton and Company, Boston, Massachusetts, one of the nation’s largest seafood importers.

Jeff McCord of the Catfish Institute responded, “Slade Gorton is a major, major distributor so if they are mislabeling, to me this says this is an extremely common practice in the United States."

But Slade Gorton's vice president of sales insists the fish was grouper. He said the company does its own outside testing for every shipment from China and those tests verify the product labeled grouper was in fact grouper. 

So why didn't the DNA tests WCNC paid reach the same conclusion?

The Slade Gorton sales manager said it might be because we tested cooked fish, which he claimed would change the  DNA from raw fish. But Mahmood Shivji, the Ph.D at the Guy Harvey Research Institute who conducted our tests said it’s not possible to change the DNA of fish without subjecting it to extremely high temperatures.

The head of the Food and Drug Safety division at North Carolina’s Department of Agriculture said he will investigate the restaurants and food suppliers named in our report. He said he’ll ask for samples of the fish labeled as grouper for testing. If he confirms the fish is not grouper, he says it’s a violation of state and federal law and he’ll take action.