Successfully finding your way through the maze of products sold at the grocery store today is no small feat; at the largest supermarkets, you will find around 40,000 different products vying for your attention. Not only do you have to absorb all the products on offer, but you also must constantly consider the pulls of health, price, convenience, taste and environmental impact, meaning purchasing can be a complex and sometimes exhausting experience.
Seafish, a body created by an Act of Parliament that works to encourage sustainable seafood and to support the seafood industry, has created a new online resource. ‘A Guide to Seafood Standards’ allows both consumers and businesses to easily access, search and compare fish and shellfish certification standards all in one place.
In an effort to improve responsible seafood sourcing and to provide guidance to consumers, many in the seafood industry use a standard or certification to verify their seafood sourcing. There are numerous standards available, each being unique in its covering of different sectors, consideration of issues and compliance to guidelines and accreditation schemes. Seafish’s resource will help many businesses to help decipher seafood standards. The interactive guide enables you to filter certification schemes to see right away what standards address specific issues, such as animal or social welfare, or food safety. In addition, the comparison function empowers you to compare different schemes, to differentiate between them and to pick those most aligned with your policies.
So now, whether you’re a consumer at the supermarket or a chef responsible for procuring seafood, you can feel confident when you see seafood standard logos and can impress your friends, family or co-workers with your intimate knowledge of seafood standards and certifications! The SSC is currently tackling the issue of how to make seafood labelling clearer with our Code of Conduct on Environmental Labelling and Self-Declared Environmental Claims.