S14DB

I thought knocking off parts was bad:


NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
September 3, 2008

Contact: Sandi Copes
Phone: 850.245.0150
[email protected]

McCOLLUM: SETTLEMENT REACHED WITH NATIONAL FOOD DISTRIBUTOR OVER GROUPER ALLEGATIONS

TALLAHASSEE, FL - Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that his office has reached a settlement with a national food distributor over allegations that Florida restaurants were serving fish that was not the grouper advertised on menus. The settlement with Sysco Food Services - West Coast Florida, Inc. concludes the Attorney General's investigation into specific incidents of grouper substitution at restaurants in the Tampa Bay Area, an investigation that has spanned nearly two years.

"Grouper is an important part of Florida's market and everyone gains from ensuring that our restaurants are receiving and serving the real thing," said Attorney General McCollum.

In 2006, the Attorney General's Economic Crimes Division initiated an investigation of allegations that Tampa area restaurants were advertising and ultimately billing patrons for grouper, but were serving less expensive fish. Investigators collected samples from more than 20 restaurants and sent the specimens to a St. Augustine lab for DNA testing. Based on the lab results, 17 separate restaurants were identified as substituting other species of fish for grouper. The Attorney General resolved all of its investigations of the restaurants, but the investigation into the source of the fish continued and led to Sysco West Coast, a leading distributor of food and related supplies to restaurants in Florida.

The Attorney General's investigation revealed that Sysco West Coast supplied grouper products to 14 of the 17 restaurants under investigation for serving alternate species of fish. Today's settlement requires that Sysco refrain from marketing to its clients any items described as grouper without taking commercially reasonable steps to determine that the item is genuine. Furthermore, if Sysco undertakes scientific testing of its fish supply and the tests do not positively identify a product as grouper, or if Sysco has any other reason to believe the product is not grouper, Sysco will not market the product as grouper.

In addition to the steps to ensure the legitimacy of its products, Sysco will donate $100,000 worth of food items to local soup kitchens and other related charities. The company will also reimburse the state's investigative fees and costs of $200,000.

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Comments should be taken as Opinions not as Statements of Fact

ThatGuy

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axiomatik

I've heard similar stories before, though not on a distributorship level.

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Mi Beardo es Loco

.......fucking Florida.

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Pank

i'd say basically 99% of fish that ANYONE eats in the USA is cod (fish sticks, fish sandwiches, usually any soup with fish, fish tacos etc etc), and its not like grouper is THAT much better than cod. Start getting pissed off when you get cod Toro or cod swordfish and stuff

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S14DB

Most of it is Talapia. Which is almost 1/10 the cost of Grouper.

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SexPanda

How is this news?

Fish is fish. If it isnt sliced into thin strips, breaded, fried, and served with frenchfries and lots of katchup I dont care.


Damn I want some fishsticks now... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

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S14DB

Real Grouper is $10 to $12 a pound. Fake Grouper is $5-$6. You can see were the profit potential is when you are charging $14.95 for a Grouper Sandwich.

In another case a guy got 51 months in jail for labeling and selling thousands of pounds of farm-raised Vietnamese catfish as Grouper. It seemed like they were just going after the small fish with restaurants. The finally stepped up and to out the big guys. Sysco said they were testing all their fish but somehow a lot of fake grouper got sent to restaurants. They got busted for it. Then showed that what they were buying from Sysco was labeled Grouper and went after Sysco.


Just thought it had some interesting parallels to fake parts for cars.

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