Hello,

This is a lovely investigation but you seem to have missed all the work completed in Europe in your introduction... As a result your statement is very misleading/incorrect in the context you use it; "Thirteen studies using molecular tools have reported the presence of European eels in restaurants and groceries: across all published studies, European eels are abundant, comprising 59% of retail samples, the vast majority of which were obtained in Hong Kong, Canada, Japan, and South Korea (Nijman & Stein, 2022). Only five studies have included more than 10 freshwater eel samples and only one of those five studies analyzed samples from retail markets outside East Asia (Nijman & Stein, 2022)". The work of Nijman & Stein focuses only outside Europe and this very important context is missing from your introduction. You have omitted all reference of the considerable work in Europe and the UK - many studies of eel with > 10 samples have been conducted there, you have simply failed to include or cite them. As a result, this paragraph is very misleading/not true. It is important to correct this and fully reference and acknowledge many of the original studies analysing eel products, rather than a secondary review.