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THE Co-operative Group has taken joint top place in the Marine Conservation Society’s (MCS) Supermarket Survey 2011, by winning a gold award for sustainable seafood. It scored an impressive 84 per cent.
The Co-operative was praised for its product labelling, Responsible Fish Sourcing Policy and sustainability initiatives.
The glory was shared with another high street retailer, Marks & Spencer which also scored 84 per cent and won a gold award for the best overall seafood policy.
The Co-op doesn’t sell any of the products identified by MCS’s “Fish to Avoid” list and all its own-brand tuna is now caught using the pole and line method. Pole and line fishing is a more selective fishing method which results in less by-catch*, which reduces the impact of fishing on the biodiversity of a region.
According to The Co-operative Ethical Consumerism Report, which is published this week (Thursday 15 December), last year, UK sales of fish from sustainable sources grew 16.3%, from £178m to £207m, twice the rate for total fish sales which increased 8.2%.
The Co-operative Food’s Responsible Fish Sourcing Policy governs the sourcing of all its own-brand wild and farmed seafood including all food products, which contain fish, from ready meals to sandwiches. Each own-brand product is assessed to confirm the source is a responsible fishery, examining the individual species based on fishery location and method of catch; species’ resilience to fishing; by-catch estimates and whether species are endangered.
Marks & Spencer were a very strong competitor this year coming joint first with the Coop. They have worked hard in recent years and this shows in the achievement of the MCS gold standard. Marks & Spencer have the most comprehensive seafood policy of all the retailers as it covers all seafood sold in store, both the farmed and wild caught aspects of this are strong. They do need to work on the labelling of their seafood products, as it can be hard to ascertain provenance in store, however the rest of their consumer awareness is good. Perhaps most impressive is the pro active work that Marks & Spencer are doing in driving sustainability forward in the seafood industry through research, projects and initiatives in fish farms and wild fisheries at sea. Marks & Spencer is currently a great option for consumers when shopping for sustainable seafood.
Sainsbury's won a silver award for the best farmed fish policy, scoring 74 per cent while Morrison's, while Waitrose also won silver for the best wild caught fish policy with a score of 72 per cent.
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