Food - Drink
Don't Be Fooled By Fake Scallops
By KAREN GRECO
While scallops are not the most costly seafood item, they are still quite expensive due to a variety of variables such as farming, labor, and transportation costs. Scallops are a strong possibility for seafood fraud due to their high price because more costly fish are typically disguised by other, less expensive kinds anywhere between 25 and 70% of the time.
Fake scallops can be made from another type of fish, like skate or shark, cut and flavored to taste like it, or made from surimi, a seafood paste made from mashed pollack used to make imitation crab meat. Fake scallops appear uniformly cylindrical, as if they were stamped or punched out with a cookie cutter, and have no horizontal fibers like the real ones.
While fake scallops are not usually found in high-end restaurants, local supermarkets or less reputable restaurants may try to pass off fraudulent shellfish as the real deal. Beware of these fake versions because some seafood allergies are fish-specific, causing an unexpected and potentially dangerous reaction if the seafood's true content is not revealed.