To guide species identification, FDA maintains a seafood names list, which is being expanded this year to include shellfish. The list is used mostly by industry so it can uniformly label its products using FDA acceptable market names. Developed in cooperation with the National Marine Fisheries Service, the list includes over 1,000 species currently sold in the United States or that have a strong potential for sale here. It does not list endangered species nor those prohibited for sale. The seafood list shows the acceptable market name, the scientific name, and any regional names.
Regional names can cause confusion, sometimes deliberately, other times inadvertently.
Distinguishing salmon steaks and fillets from other fish is easy, due to their distinctive color and appearance. Some aquaculturalists have begun using the color additives canthaxanthin and astaxanthin, both derived from beta carotene, a vitamin A component that imparts an orange color. Astaxanthin has not yet been approved for any food or feed use. When used in feed for rainbow trout, these color additives turn trout flesh the color of salmon, a much higher valued species. There is no such species and this is not an acceptable market name, Snyder says.