Almost never you get what you pay for: Widespread mislabeling of commercial 'zamburinas' in northern Spain

Food fraud involves both financial and health problems for consumers as well as conservation problems for target species worldwide. In Spain, the common name “zamburina”, which officially only refers to the species Mimachlamys varia (the variegated scallop), is frequently mistakenly used to refer to other pectinid species, and this confuses consumers. In this study, we carried out the first assessment of the levels of fraud in samples from 12 supermarkets/small shops offering fresh, frozen, or canned pectinid products and in 20 restaurants offering “zamburinas” in Asturias (northern Spain). Taxonomic and genetic identifications of the involved species (using 16S mitochondrial rRNA partial fragments) were conducted. Our results showed that 73 (49%) out of the 148 analyzed samples from the fifteen commercial products under study (4 fresh, 6 frozen and 5 canned products) were mislabeled (a global 60% of commercial products had substitutions). Moreover, the analysis of the dishes that were commercially labeled with the vernacular name “zamburinas” from 20 restaurants sampled across the region revealed that in all of them (100%), the species detected was the Peruvian scallop (Argopecten purpuratus), known in Spanish as “vieira del Pacifico”. These results imply intentional deceit and therefore violations of consumer rights. Moreover, this might result in economic damage and serious problems for correct marine resource management and exploitation plans.