Fixing the Phony
Fish Problem
That $5 grouper sandwich is too good to
be true, and a spinoff company from the
University of South Florida (USF) is trying to
prove it.
PureMolecular in St. Petersburg has
developed a simple and quick method
to test seafood for authenticity making
it harder for imposter ish to ind its way
between your buttered buns.
According to a report by an organization
protecting the world’s oceans, Oceana,
as much as 33 percent of the seafood
sold in the U.S. is mislabeled. Fish in
consistent demand, such as tuna,
salmon and grouper, lead the cases of
phony seafood. Increased regulations,
expense, wildlife protection measures
and other factors have driven part of
the market toward shortcuts resulting in
deceitful practices.
a vendor and obtain a very small sample of the seafood for sale
(a mere prick of the ish), then place the sample in a proprietary
mixture to receive a reading of authenticity within seconds.
The kit analyzes genetics of the ish to determine the result.
Imposter seafood tends to come in the form of lower-quality
species, including farm-raised ish which differ greatly in heavy
metals and pollutants. The genetic make-up predicts lavor
quality. There are some ish that are outright frauds, as was the
case when Paul found Asian Catish being marketed as grouper.
In an effort to thwart the shortcuts,
PureMolecular teamed up with USF
and The Corridor in a Matching Grants
Research Program project to further
develop its technology.
“Grouper is a delicious ish,” said Paul. “It’s expensive
because it is iconic in Florida and restaurants serving it
at price differences of $15 have to make the consumer
wonder what they are buying for their money.”
CEO Dr. John Paul is also a USF professor
in the College of Marine Science. He
led the project in his lab with a graduate
student, both researching improvements
to the kits, hardware and chemistry.
Without The Corridor funding, PureMolecular would not be able
to afford the student researcher furthering her graduate work on
the project and supplies necessary to upgrade the kits.
“Our goal is to build a better mouse trap
for when a buyer is standing on a boat
getting ready to purchase 49 tons of
grouper and he needs to know what it
is,” said Paul.
Paul’s business partner, CTO Bob Ulrich, was a former graduate
student of his.
“The spark for this company came from realizing technology
developed by research dollars in academia can often
stagnate,” said Ulrich. “We saw a practical application for this
technology and we are seeing more of its potential every day.”
The technology works like this: someone
purchasing food for a restaurant can visit
florida.HIGH.TECH 2016
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