Fla. settles with supplier in fake grouper probe

An attorney general's investigation into more than 20 Tampa Bay restaurants found 17 served a product other than grouper, and that 14 of those establishments were supplied with fish by Sysco Food Services-West Coast Florida, Inc., among other companies.

The settlement is not an admission of any wrongdoing on Sysco's part, but rather, an agreement to modify their practices. Under the settlement, Sysco must refrain from marketing a fish as grouper unless it takes steps to determine it is in fact genuine.

The company must also donate $100,000 worth of food items to local soup kitchens and charities, and pay the state's investigative fees of costs of $200,000.

"Grouper is an important part of Florida's market and everyone gains from ensuring that our restaurants are serving the real thing," Attorney General Bill McCollum said in a news release.

The attorney general office's probe began in 2006. Investigators collected fish from more than 20 restaurants and sent the specimens to a St. Augustine lab for DNA testing.

The results confirmed what some had already suspected: Seventeen of the restaurants were serving other fish as grouper, such as Emperor, Hake and Green Weakfish.

Sysco supplied grouper products to a majority of those establishments, according to the attorney general's office. Spokeswoman Sandi Copes said investigators couldn't rule out the possibility the sampled fish had come from Sysco.

"We now know that many of the samples were not grouper," Copes said in an e-mail. "From here on out, Sysco must definitely identify the samples as grouper before selling it as such."

Last year, three Tampa Bay-area restaurants caught selling a substitute as grouper agreed to stop and reimburse the state for its investigation. The eateries were also required to make a $500 donation to the lab that conducted the DNA testing.