The Nutritional Impact of Seafood Mislabeling in Pet Food (2024)

Undergraduates: Halle McKellar, Erin Mazur, Katie Zarzour, Jack Titus

Faculty Advisor: Savannah Ryburn
Department: Biology

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Seafood mislabeling has mass consequences for consumer health, human rights, the environment, and conservation efforts. It is especially concerning for shark species because mislabeling thwarts the ability to protect threatened species and accurately report mercury levels in food products. DNA barcoding developments have enabled the detection of seafood mislabeling, but highly processed products pose a challenge for typical barcoding procedures. Recent studies have used PCR multiplexing and identified endangered sharks’ meat hidden in pet food and makeup, but with minimal scale owing to the complications degraded DNA poses. Our study aimed to increase the scale of this research for cat food. We sampled regularly bought Purina brands and barcoded them for shark presence to illuminate the impact for shark conservation and feline nutrition.