Committed to ethical fishing – hook, line and sinker

Committed to ethical fishing – hook, line and sinker

It’s official! Sainsbury’s is the best sustainable seafood supermarket in the world.

We landed this accolade after topping the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC’s) annual Supermarket League – a pole position that reflects our plan to make all our fish certified sustainable by 2020.

The MSC found we had more of its labelled products than any other national supermarket, both in the UK and globally. An MSC-label proves that a product comes from a wild-catch fishery and has been certified to the non-profit organisation’s standards for environmentally sustainable fishing.

Ally Dingwall, our Aquaculture and Fisheries Manager, said: “We know that buying sustainable products is important to our customers, and this award gives them the confidence that when they buy fish and seafood from Sainsbury’s, it can be traced from boat to store.

Customer choice

Salmon farm

“Because of the sheer quantity of MSC certified products, our customers have the widest choice of quality fish and seafood products that are fished in a responsible way ensuring fish populations remain healthy and where fishing methods minimise environmental impact.”

As the MSC award shows, we’re making good progress in our plan to make sales of sustainable seafood rise to 85 per cent by 2017, and to 100 per cent by 2020.

By early 2017, 79 per cent of our wild-caught seafood sales were independently certified as sustainable – alongside 100 per cent of our farmed fish and seafood.

“When customers buy fish from Sainsbury’s it can be traced from boat to store.”

Ally Dingwall
Sainsbury’s Aquaculture and Fisheries Manager

Supporting fisheries

To source more wild fish sustainably, we’re working with those fisheries who aren’t yet MSC-certified, to help them on their path to certification.

We’re also an active member of the Sustainable Seafood Coalition, which sets codes of conduct for sourcing and labelling seafood.

And we support projects such as the Global Ghost Gear Initiative, which helps clean up and provide cleaner oceans for fish and wildlife by tackling the issue of lost or abandoned fishing gear.

70%

of wild caught seafood sales independently certified as sustainable – along with 100% of farmed fish.

Sustainable farmed fish

We’re also proud that 100 per cent of our farmed seafood was certified against a recognised, independent sustainability standard by 2016.

We were the first major retailer, for example, to sell farmed river cobbler certified by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council. And we were also the first to sell RSPCA Freedom Food (now RSPCA Assured) loch trout. This helps ensure that high standards of animal welfare aren’t just for land animals: they also count for fish.