Abstract

Recently, several state and U.S. federal agencies, along with consumer advocacy groups, have reported incidents of lowervalued fish species being sold to consumers as higher valued species. In Florida, the news media has reported some restaurants that claim to be selling grouper are actually serving lower valued species mislabeled as grouper. This fraudulent product substitution could have an impact on the market for grouper in Florida. The main goal of this study is to determine if the reported product substitution has affected consumer purchasing patterns for grouper and other types of seafood, if consumers would be willing to pay a premium for Florida-caught grouper if the industry created a product integrity labeling program, and what information could the label convey that would be most valuable to consumers.

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