Young’s Seafood leads sustainable fish charge

Most of its packs were already compliant with the codes, it said. Now it has announced it will be among the first fish processors to ensure that all its Young’s branded packs are fully compliant from early 2015 onwards.

The codes were launched earlier in September by the Sustainable Seafood Coalition, a group of supermarkets, restaurants, fishmongers, suppliers, processors and industry representatives working together for sustainable fish and seafood.

Under the codes, organisations such as Young’s Seafood, are committed to ensuring fish labelled as being ‘sustainable’ meets strict sustainability criteria. Signatories also aim to ensure they implement good practice while responsibly sourcing the seafood they serve up to British consumers.

‘Just the start’​

“We were involved in the early days of the coalition, and are among the first to make the changes to our packaging,”​ said Pete Ward, deputy ceo of Young’s Seafood. “It is great to see so many organisations getting on board, but this is just the start. Now we want to see more organisations signing up to make seafood labels clearer and committing to responsible sourcing.”​

Mike Mitchell, CSR and technical director at Young’s Seafood, added: “When we first set out our Fish for Life commitments on responsible sourcing, we knew that we’d need to work closely with other stakeholders to champion sustainability …​

“So for us, the Sustainable Seafood Coalition isn’t simply about ensuring that our labelling is compliant with a new code, it is mainly about the opportunity to drive real fishery improvements and promote more sustainable practice at sea.”​

Wide ranging support​

Young’s Seafood said its management team and marine biologist had played an active role in the development of the Sustainable Seafood Coalition. The new codes have attracted wide ranging support, including the backing of celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Supermarket and supplier members of the Sustainable Seafood Coalition now account for more than 80% of fish sales in the UK, Young’s Seafood claims. It hopes to encourage more organisations within the industry to sign up to the code on labelling and more fishermen and fish farmers to sign up to the code on responsible sourcing.