The Marine Stewardship Council eco-label will be a much more common sight on menus in England thanks to £400,000 new funding from Defra’s Greener Living Fund.
MSC on the Menu will promote the use of certified sustainable seafood on menus by working with in-house and contract caterers, school, university and office canteens, as well as independent restaurants.
Laura Stewart, Foodservice Manager for the MSC said: “This project is about making MSC seafood more accessible to people when they’re eating out or having lunch in the working day. In the UK you can already choose from over 300 items in supermarkets and the first restaurants are already involved. With MSC on the Menu, we want to expand that to encourage restaurants and canteens across the country to get certified so that, when you’re eating out, you can have the same wide choice of MSC-labelled seafood you have when you’re cooking at home.”
The MSC has a history of working successfully with Defra funding: the Fish & Kids project was part-funded by Defra and has already reached over 900,000 children in the UK. It is now being replicated in Sweden. MSC on the Menu will reach out to consumers by helping them to support certified sustainable fishing. The project will allow the MSC to work more closely with catering businesses and restaurants interested in MSC certification. Plans include a training film for restaurant staff, social marketing campaigns and tailored take-home messaging to create long-lasting change in families’ shopping habits.
Laura Stewart adds: “When people are eating out, they are a captive audience with the time and inclination to read about the seafood they are being offered. The materials we develop as part of MSC on the Menu will provide a positive and engaging way to communicate to them about certified sustainable fish.
“We’ve seen a fantastic response to the MSC from UK fisheries with about half of Scottish landings in the MSC programme, and a growing interest from fisheries in England. This project will also address the shortage of fresh, certified seafood for the foodservice market by engaging new UK fisheries – and helping to promote certified fisheries in the foodservice sector.”
