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 like Young’s Seafood Limited, are committed to ensuring that fish labelled as being ‘sustainable’ meets strict sustainability criteria and that they implement good practice while responsibly sourcing the seafood they serve up to British consumers.
Pete Ward, Deputy Chief Executive of Young’s Seafood Limited, said: “We were involved in the early days of the Coalition, and are among the first to make the changes to our packaging. 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 Limited, 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 – the principles of continuous improvement, cross-sectoral engagement and clear communication have been deeply embedded in our corporate philosophy for many years now. So for us, the Sustainable Seafood Coalition is not 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.”
Young’s Seafood Limited’s management team, and Marine Biologist have played an active role in the development of the Sustainable Seafood Coalition and the new codes have attracted a wide range of support, including the backing of celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
Supermarket and supplier members of the Sustainable Seafood Coalition now account for over 80 per cent of fish sales in the UK, and Young’s Seafood Limited hopes to encourage more organisations within the industry to sign up to the code on labeling and more fishermen and fish farmers to sign up to the code on responsible sourcing.
Young’s Seafood Limited, the fish specialists, supply a wide range of responsibly sourced fish – from restaurant quality Gastro frozen fish dishes to fish fingers – and process own-label fish for retailers.
Most Young’s Seafood packs are already compliant with the code. The company is now committing to ensuring that it will be among the first fish processors to ensure that all their Young’s brand packs are fully compliant with the new code from early 2015 onwards.
