| dc.description.abstract | The certification or identification of fish has become an important tool for the detection of fraud or replacement intentional often found as replacements for products of higher availability and low commercial value. The occurrence of substitutions in fish has been reported in several countries, such as Canada, USA, Japan, Korea and Brazil, mainly due to the absence of morphological characters in species processed. Furthermore, the protein electrophoresis technique for species identification is laborious, requiring skilled labor and cant be applied to chemically or thermally processed. In this work, we used the technique of molecular identification of DNA barcoding to identify the species composition of fish and seafood, fresh and processed. Twenty-two percent of the samples were considered replacements, 60% of the sample reliable and 18% could not be analyzed due to lack of information on labels. The fish where more substitution observed was Merluza (70%), and the kind marketed under the name most popular has been the Gadus chalcogrammus (n = 17). Second in number of frauds is the Cod, identified species Molva molva and Pollachius virens, that were not considered codas second order of the MAPA, accounting then for 63% of the sample considered "replacement". In other types of fish such as Panga, Salmon and Traíra, substitutions were also observed. Thus, one can say that the technique of DNA Barcoding is an important tool and useful in detecting substitutions in fish and seafood, processed and fresh. Therefore, we recommend the establishment of a valid list of commercial and scientific names for fish and seafood sold in Brazil. This reference list would make it possible for regulators of Brazil, fraud detection and replacement market. In addition, customs services would support regulating and supervising items imported / exported, for tax purposes, and also to protect the consumer. | |
