This year Mars Petcare Europe will begin rolling out MSC certification across a selection of fish varieties in the SHEBA® and WHISKAS® brand portfolios across Europe, offering consumers a choice of more sustainable pet food products for the first time.

Mars Petcare Europe will begin rolling out MSC certification across a selection of fish varieties in the SHEBA® brand

Mars Petcare Europe will begin rolling out MSC certification across a selection of fish varieties in the SHEBA® brand

In an industry first, Mars Incorporated’s Petcare business also announced its commitment to using only sustainably sourced fish by 2020. Mars, which operates one of the world’s largest petcare businesses - has worked with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to develop its fish sustainability commitment. The introduction of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified petfood in Europe by the end of 2010 will be an important milestone in this sustainability journey.

“We are leading the way with this commitment to use only sustainably sourced fish and as the world’s largest petcare business we’re in a position to affect real change.” said Pierre Laubies, Global President of Mars Petcare. “We are confident we can be a catalyst for change and by working with organisations such as the WWF and MSC we hope to encourage the rest of the industry to follow.”

The company aims to achieve the following milestones, across its entire petcare portfolio:

  • Only using fish from 100% sustainable wild catch and sustainable aquaculture sources
  • Replacing all wild catch whole fish and fish fillet with sustainable fish by-products and sustainable aquaculture
  • Only using sustainable alternatives to marine fish ingredients