New research from Seafish has revealed that the UK’s kids have very little awareness when it comes to edible fish species, except if they are made into fish fingers.
In a poll carried out of Britain’s five to 11 year olds, one third (29%) named fish fingers as an edible fish ahead of popular fish such as haddock (18%) and prawns (16%).
And more kids were able to name the Finding Nemo clownfish (12%) than mackerel (5%) and sustainable species such as pollock and coley failed to figure at all.
“By educating children on the importance of seafood in their diet, we are helping to inform dietary decisions in the early years of eating habit development. We are all too aware that there is still work to be done to improve education on the benefits of eating fish,” said Heather Middleton, Seafish.
She pointed out that the initiatives that Seafish will be rolling out in the next few months will go some way to addressing the issue and that historically teachers have found that educating young people on the importance of seafood has been difficult to work into the curriculum.
But from September, a new curriculum for English schools will include cooking, which Seafish hopes will further children’s interest in eating seafood.
This autumn, it will also roll out a teachers’ guide, children’s learning materials and workbooks to 18,000 schools across the country.
