Displaying items by tag: labelling

12th December 2010

EU Seafood Labelling Rules 'Not Being Enforced'

Next time you buy fish at the supermarket, it may not be what it appears to be - according to the authors of a new paper on truth in food labelling in the European seafood industry.

Mother Jones reports that researchers from the School of Biology and Environmental Science at UCD found a surprising 25 per cent of haddock and cod products "randomly sampled from supermarkets, fishmongers' shops and take-away restaurants" in Dublin "were genetically identified as entirely different species from that indicated on the product labels."

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/12/science-shots-fishy-seafood-citizen-defenders-geminids

The team also found that 28 out of 34 selected samples of smoked fish were found to be labelled incorrectly.

"These results indicate that the strict EU policies currently in place to regulate seafood labelling have not been adequately iimplemented and enforced," they said.

The paper – Smoke, mirrors, and mislabeled cod: poor transparency in the European seafood industry, by Dana D Miller and Stefano Mariani - is published in the current issue of the journal Frontoers in Ecology and the Environment.

Next time you buy fish at the supermarket, it may not be what it appears to be - according to the authors of a new paper on truth in food labelling in the European seafood industry.

The team also stated that 28 out of 34 selected samples of smoked fish were found to be labelled incorrectly.

"These results indicate that the strict EU policies currently in place to regulate seafood labelling have not been adequately iimplemented and enforced," they said.

The paper - Smoke, mirrors, and mislabeled cod: poor transparency in the European seafood industry, by Dana D Miller and Stefano Mariani - is published in the current issue of the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

Published in Fishing

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Forty Foot Swimming Spot on Dublin Bay

The 'Forty Foot' is a rocky outcrop located at the southern tip of Dublin Bay at Sandycove, County Dublin from which people have been swimming in the Irish Sea all year round for 300 years or more. It is popular because it is one of few spots between Dublin city and Greystones in County Wicklow that allows for swimming at all stages of the tide, subject to the sea state.

Forty Foot History

Traditionally, the bathing spot was exclusively a men's bathing spot and the gentlemen's swimming club was established to help conserve the area.

Owing to its relative isolation and gender-specific nature it became a popular spot for nudists, but in the 1970s, during the women's liberation movement, a group of female equal-rights activists plunged into the waters and now it is also open to everyone and it is in the control of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.

Many people believe that swimming in extremely cold water is healthy and good for the immune system.

Is it safe to swim at the Forty Foot?

The Forty-Foot is a great place to swim because there is always enough water to get a dip but like all sea swimming, there are always hazards you need to be aware of. For example, a lot of people like to dive into to the pool at the Forty-foot but there are submerged rocks that can be hazardous especially at low water. The Council have erected signs to warn people of the underwater dangers. Other hazards include slippy granite cut stone steps that can often be covered with seaweed and of course marine wildlife including jellyfish that make their presence felt in the summer months as do an inquisitive nearby Sandycove seal colony.