DNA from endangered sharks found in Singaporean pet food: study

A dog can be seen eating in this undated photo. (Cottonbro/ Pexels)

Do you know what you are feeding your pet? It turns out ingredients listed on your pet’s favourite food as ‘fish,’ ‘ocean fish,’ or ‘white bait’ could be referring to endangered shark meat.

A new study published in Frontiers in Marine Science reveals a high prevalence of ingredient mislabelling in pet food products in Singapore.

Researchers at Yale-NUS College in Singapore used DNA barcoding to investigate whether there was shark DNA in 45 different pet food products from 16 different brands on sale.

Of the 144 samples taken, 31 percent contained shark DNA.

“The majority of pet owners are likely lovers of nature, and we think most would be alarmed to discover that they could be unknowingly contributing to the overfishing of shark populations,” said the study authors, Ben Wainwright and Ian French, of Yale-NUS College, Singapore, in a news release.

The findings are consistent with a U.S. study in 2019 that found shark meat in 78 pet food samples.

“Given the results of a previous study performed in the U.S., we wanted to see if endangered sharks are also sold in Asian pet food,” said the authors.

Shark populations are overfished throughout the world, with declines of more than 70 per cent in the past 50 years. Crucial for the functioning of the health marine systems, their loss leads to declining seagrass beds and coral reefs.

While the illegal sale of their fins is widely publicized, a silent contributor, the authors say, is the lack of transparent labels leading to their use in everyday products.

For example, many people are unaware that certain body care and beauty products may use shark-derived squalene, as opposed to plant-derived squalane.

The most frequently identified species in pet products were blue sharks, silky sharks, and whitetip reef sharks. The silky shark and the whitetip reef shark are listed as “vulnerable” in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List.

According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, if the trade of the silky shark is not controlled, it would threaten the survival of the species.

The study’s authors are calling for more accurate ingredient labelling so that people know what they are feeding to their pets and where it came from.

The study concludes that there is a need to implement global standards for pet food labels, with higher accountability throughout the pet food supply chains.

In Canada, it is illegal to sell falsely labelled food, but limited investigations mean it’s hard to know the extent of food fraud in the country.

According to the U.S. Grocery Manufacturers Association, 10 percent of all commercially sold food products are impacted by food fraud and are most often reported in olive oil, honey, dry spices, fish, fruit juices and organic food products.