Il quadro normativo sulle denominazioni commerciali dei prodotti ittici nella gestione delle frodi: strumento utile o problema irrisolto?

The authors suggest that the extent of fraudulent seafood sales reported in recent years is, in some way, correlated to the questions regarding Italian commercial fishnaming- policy. However, given the scarcity of data and studies, the work is necessarily exploratory in nature, focusing on three main issues: the policy framework for seafood-labeling, the evolution of lists of trade names for fish species, and the extent, as well as the different types, of fraudulent sales recorded. From the available data the authors believe that the fish-naming system is improving, however, the scarcity of studies aimed at estimating the real amount of diversification in trade names for marine species would seen to be an obstacle to the adoption of a succesful policy. Furthermore, seafood retailers seems to be assuming an important role in fraud management, hence the government should support research to innovative species-detection methods which could be applied directly to retailers? quality insurance systems. This would be a win-win strategy, preventing fraudulent behaviour and reducing the costs attributable to public inspections.