5. Conclusions
The use of reliable, rapid and cost-effective tools for authentication of seafood, verifying fish types and tracing their origins, is crucial in order to protect consumers’ rights, to control fraudulent market substitution and/or prevent illegal fish capture. Given the need to make analytical methods more widely available, the introduction of biomolecular methods would have significant implications in terms of consumer protection. DNA barcoding thus provides a valuable tool (Hebert & Gregory, 2005) for codfish identification and for further applications in the field of food authentication,raising significant issues relating to species identity, food safety, protection of wildlife and sustainable fishery fields. Additional
molecular research will be needed to provide further data so as to extend our knowledge to other fish species, in order to reform seafood market practices, particularly regarding commercially important species in Europe.