Vague labelling of shark products in Australia’s fish and chip shops undermines consumer choice and sustainability of domestic shark fisheries

Abstract

Australia has a good reputation for promoting sustainable management of fisheries and protecting endangered and threatened shark species. In Australia, consumers mainly purchase shark products from retail outlets called fish and chip shops. Accurate and precise labelling of shark products is essential to ensure that consumers can make informed choices about the types of shark products they consume. However, little is known about labelling practices in fish and chip shops. We conducted a review of online menus to assess the quality of labelling of shark products in fish and chip shops across Australia. Using a Google search, we identified 1132 fish and chip shops and found that most had online menus (n = 850, 75% of 1132). Over half of the menus included shark products (n = 435, 51% of 850) with another 277 (33% of 850) selling unspecified ‘fish and chips’ products that could include shark and 138 (16% of 850) selling specific ‘scalefish’ products. Of those menus (712 of 850) that either offered shark products or products that could include shark meat, most were labelled using generic terms such as 'flake' (37%, 261 of 712) or unspecified 'shark' (9%, 64 of 712) and unspecified ‘fish and chips’ (38%, 275 of 712). Only 16% (111 of 712) of retail outlets provided shark species-specific labels and only 41% of these also provided information about the area of origin, which was typically expressed as either ‘Australian/Local’ or ‘Imported’. We argue that relevant authorities should focus on policies aimed at improving labelling practices, including a requirement for menus to incorporate authentic species name and area of origin information, as this has the potential to enable consumers to purchase products obtained from sustainable shark fishing, and would reward retailers who use informative product labels.