Have you ever found yourself wondering about the species identification of the molluscan muscle in your mouth? The answer can be as slippery as the animal.

Accurate seafood labeling is a constant problem, largely due to the length of the supply chain. Customers have to trust what the restaurant or supermarket tells them, and the buyers for those businesses in turn have to trust what their suppliers say. This game of fish telephone can go around the world, as globalization shuttles seafood between distant markets.

Among seafood, cephalopod labeling is some of the least informative. Often there's no attempt to get any more specific than "squid" or "octopus", and even those terms seem dubious when you realize how often people mix them up.

Genetics to the rescue!

A team of researchers from the National Association for Producers of Canned Fish and Shellfish (Anfaco-Cecopesca) have initiated a study to genetically identify cephalopods with the most commercial interest, such as squid, giant squid and octopus. . . . Currently, there is no such methodology for the genetic identification of cephalopod species. It is expected that the investigation will determine the authenticity of resources through techniques based on PCR-RT.

Anfaco-Cecopesca is in Galicia, Spain, but I'm hoping their techniques will end up being used across global markets. Accurate seafood labeling is a necessary prerequisite for consumers to make choices about sustainability . . . not to mention the simple fact that people want to get what they pay for, rather than being given tilapia when the menu said red snapper.

Soon, when you take a bite out of one of our head-footed friends, maybe you'll know which species it is.