ONE-third of fish and chip shops tested in Glasgow were found to be replacing haddock with cheaper cuts of fish.
The investigation has led to calls from consumer rights organisation Which? for better regulatory investigation.
As part of a Stop Food Fraud campaign, Which? tested 15 samples of fish labelled as haddock bought from random fish and chip shops in Glasgow. Five of the 15 samples tested were found to be whiting, which is similar to haddock but usually cheaper.
Which? is to pass on the details of the five chip shops to Glasgow City Council. The results come just five months after testing lamb takeaways south of the border found 40 per cent had been contaminated with other meats, with some containing no lamb at all.
With half (49 per cent) of consumers saying they are not confident that the food they buy from takeaways is correctly described and contains the ingredients stated, Which? says it is campaigning for food fraud to be a greater priority.
It said the new food agency, Food Standards Scotland (FSS), must have strong powers and be prepared to tackle food crime.
"Consumers need to be confident in the food they are buying and we want the FSS to put consumers at the heart of their work," said Which? The new body, to replace the Food Standards Agency in Scotland, would have a wider scope, including greater powers to tackle diet and nutritional health in addition to regulating food safety.
The new agency would have the power to sanction anyone breaking food laws.
The Food (Scotland) Bill, which would establish FSS, is currently being debated at Holyrood.
Which? has passed its findings to Glasgow City Council, the Food Standards Agency in Scotland, Trading Standards Scotland and members of the Scottish Parliament's Health and Sport Committee who are considering the proposals for a new food standards body.
Head of Which? public affairs for Scotland, Gordon MacRae, said: "It's unacceptable that people are being misled, and that the food they have ordered is not what they're told it is. Consumers need to feel confident in the food they buy. It's in the interests of responsible food businesses, as well as consumers, to make sure there are effective controls in place and a zero tolerance approach to food crime.
"The creation of the new food agency, Food Standards Scotland, provides an ideal opportunity to ensure that there is a tougher approach to food fraud."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article