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AMERICANS are eating less fish, according to the latest statistics - and in a period before the big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico four months ago.
According to the National Fisheries Institute, consumers in the United States ate an average of 15.8 lbs of fish and seafood at home and in restaurants in 2009, compared to 16 lbs the previous year.
This represents a drop of 1.25 per cent, which is not in itself too worrying. But the figure is expected to fall even further this year because a lot of Americans have stopped eating fish, put off by the contamination scare from the oil spill.
However, on the plus side, Americans did eat more salmon, pollack and tilapia while shrimp still proved to be the big favourite. The falls were in cod, canned tuna, catfish, and crab. Flatfish was knocked out of the top ten consumption list of Pangasius from Vietnam.
NFI officials said that while per-capita consumption declined slightly last year, population growth resulted in a 45-million pound increase in total domestic consumption compared with the prior year.
Jennifer McGuire, NFI’s registered dietician. said: “From a public health perspective, it’s imperative that Americans eat more fish,” “This is a message we expect to see front and centre when federal health experts release the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans this year — the familiar food pyramid program.While we anticipate hearing a lot about eating less salt and not as much saturated fat, when it comes to seafood more is better,” she said.
Should people be 'stimulated' to eat white fish alternatives to cod?
