Lawsuit: Whole Foods suppliers pressured to lie about the origin, quality of their fish

[HuckleB]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/04/lawsuit-whole-foods-pressures-suppliers-to-lie-about-the-origin-quality-of-their-fish/

"That salmon you paid top dollar for at Whole Foods because you thought it had spent its youth frolicking in a Scottish fish farm might just be some fraud flown in from Chile.

The former head buyer for one of the nation’s biggest providers of Scottish smoked salmon claims in a federal lawsuit that her bosses pressured her to dupe major retailers into thinking they were buying prized Scottish salmon when they were instead getting a cheap Chilean catch.

Denise Chadwick of Clifton says she was fired by St. James Smokehouse on March 12, one day after she sent her boss an email warning of the potential for criminal charges if the feds got wind of what the company was up to, according to a whistleblower lawsuit she filed in U.S. District Court in Newark on Tuesday.

Chadwick, 60, said she’d become increasingly concerned that the Miami-based company could be violating U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations by labeling fish from Norway and Chile as “Product of Scotland,” the lawsuit says.

..."



Hmmmmmm.

[mikeysnot]

1. Great...

we don't need no oversight or stinking regulations.

[HuckleB]

2. +1

[PubsFU]

3. Never, Ever, Buy Fish that is not sold head on, otherwise you will not really know what you are

getting.

Touch and smell it BEFORE to buy it, if it smells fishy, don't buy it. If mushy also don't buy it.

When it comes to seafood if you don't know what you are doing YOU will more than likely get screwed.

Finding a good fish monger you can trust is very difficult in most places in America, even if you live on the coast.

[Bandit]

6. I think you are mistaken

Once the head is removed bacteria starts setting in. Any time the meat is exposed the shelf life of the fish is drastically reduced. Temperature is not the only controlling factor in reducing bacteria. The way the fish is cleaned and handled make a huge difference as well. I just reread your post and realized I misunderstood what you wrote. You were correct in that the head should remain on the fish and I was hasty in my reply. Sorry..

[PubsFU]

7. NP so I will save the Frozen and Chemically Treated Seafood Rant for another time.

[frazzled]

4. Very misleading title

I thought this was about Whole Foods doing something bad, but when you actually read the article, they are just one among many stores who are victims of the St. James mislabling:

Chadwick claims in the lawsuit that invoices to Whole Foods, Wegman’s and other retailers were purposefully mislabeled to suggest they were from Scotland. She said Maher told her to sell an unidentified Chicago customer salmon from Norway even though the customer only wanted farm-raised salmon from Scotland, the lawsuit claims.

[Enrique]

8. and look at the URL

"Whole foods pressures suppliers"

ironic in a story about mislableling

[Bandit]

5. While Chilean farmed fish may be cheaper they are not inferior to Scottish or Norwegian

farmed fish. All farmed fish are fed chemicals and swim in extremely confined quarters with their feces. Unless you are buying fresh wild salmon especially from Alaska you are getting an inferior product.