FEATURED ENTRY · CONCEPT
Tuna mislabeling in LA sushi restaurants
Oceana’s 2013 and 2019 seafood fraud reports found that 33% to 87% of ‘tuna’ samples from US sushi restaurants were mislabeled [1][2]. Common substitutions include escolar (often sold as ‘white tuna’) and yellowfin tuna sold as bluefin tuna [1][2]. Escolar contains a waxy ester called gempylotoxin that cannot be digested, causing gastrointestinal issues such as diarrhea, oily stools, nausea, and cramping [1][2]. The provided sources do not list any Los Angeles omakase restaurants that explicitly disclose species and origin, so this question cannot be answered from the given materials. To answer, a list of LA omakase restaurants with their menu disclosure practices would be needed.
Sources
- https://oceana.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/National_Seafood_Fraud_Testing_Results_FINAL.pdf
- https://usa.oceana.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/march_2019_oceana_seafood_fraud_report_final.pdf