[undersuit]

>not everyone cares exactly what the species is so long as it's fish, but they'd freak out it wasn't even some kind of fish.

I would say that is about 100% wrong.

I don't order "the fish" in any restaurant. I order what's on the menu, and if the menu says it's snapper, I expect snapper. If it's not snapper, change your menu.

Wouldn't you object to my restaurant serving you Angus beef when you actually ordered the Wagyu?

[wfunction]

>> not everyone cares exactly what the species is

> I would say that is about 100% wrong. I don't order "the fish" in any restaurant.

You aren't everyone. And people generally try not to be sarcastic when ordering, either. Ordering "the fish" in a seafood restaurant would be obviously sarcastic. In another kind of restaurant, it isn't necessarily.

Heck, take a look at "Filet-O-Fish" on McDonald's menu: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/filet-o-fish.html

> Dive into our wild-caught fish sandwich! Sourced from sustainable fisheries, topped with melty American cheese and creamy tartar sauce, and served on a soft, steamed bun.

What kind of fish is it? You have no idea from just looking at the menu. But people order it anyway. Maybe you don't, but you are not everyone.

And no, this isn't the only restaurant (or "food place", or whatever you want to call it) in the world that does this.

[loader]

If you click through to the ingredients section you'll see:

FISH FILET PATTY: Ingredients: Pollock, Water, Vegetable Oil ...

[wfunction]

Yes. Did I say it was impossible to figure out?

I thought I was just saying not everyone tries to figure it out before ordering.

[hobs]

There is a large difference between not saying what type of fish it is, and directly contradicting the truth(lying.)

McDonalds didn't lie in any of that advertising(no matter how gross the food is.) They even had the actual type of fish in a discover-able format which the high end sushi restaurant fails to do and charges you high prices for what might be worse than what McDonalds is selling you; how would you know?

[wfunction]

> There is a large difference between not saying what type of fish it is, and directly contradicting the truth(lying.)

Uhm, way to take it out of context. I was only bringing up McDonald's in reply to the quote in the parent comment:

>> I don't order "the fish" in any restaurant.

I wasn't using it for any other argument.

Now, in reply to your point: like I said much earlier, as Wikipedia says, the FDA and other "experts" don't consider this to be lying either. So if you have a problem, you should be complaining to them instead.

[Agathos]

McDonald's doesn't promise you tuna and doesn't give you tuna.

A sushi restaurant promises you tuna and still doesn't give you tuna.

You don't see anything wrong with that?

[jameshart]

In New England restaurants you'll find 'scrod' on a lot of menus. It means something different in every restaurant.

[pekk]

> Wouldn't you object to my restaurant serving you Angus beef when you actually ordered the Wagyu?

If I cared enough to order such a thing. But it isn't a safety issue, it's a truth in advertising issue. Hard when the truth involved is something like the distinction of champagne vs. sparkling wine.

[zdkl]

(Disclaimer: French speaking)

The whole pooint of having the word "Champagne" is to distinguish the product of a particular geographical region ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champagne_(province) ), in contrast to similar products on the ground that the value add is in the methods and traditions formed over time in that region and different in other regions. Most people swear they notice the difference, but eh. The point still stands in our culture of valueing specific products or methodologies. There's nothing inherently hard in distinguishing productors who're in the business since several generations from the new farm (who might be of equal or superior quality) in $foreignplace who's trying to cash in on the name.

One particular example a bit tangential to the original thread: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laguiole_knife The term is not protected so the market's been flooded with things who share nothing but the shape with the original item. Which incidentally are the gorgeous looking and utterly indestructable :)

[benlambert]

It can be a safety issue if you order fish you thought was caught in the wild but is actually fish farmed in some far-away place to god-knows-what health standard (perhaps fed large doses of antibiotics, etc).

We need transparency or food companies will cut corners at every turn to save costs and put the publics' health at risk.