Sodexo extends efforts to promote certified sustainable seafood

• Promote MSC-certified seafood across the 80 countries where it operates
• Maximise awareness and collaboration with both its clients and consumers

By committing to source sustainable fish and seafood, Sodexo will actively contribute to reversing the decline of living marine resources and will help protect marine biodiversity.

Sodexo's Sustainable Seafood Initiative is part of the company's Better Tomorrow Plan, the company's global roadmap for sustainability and its five-part global seafood strategy to:

• Maintain a wide variety of species in Sodexo’s catalogues and menus
• Ban species at risk and implement control measures for others
• Use eco-standards or labels
• Set up supply for sustainable aquaculture
• Develop sourcing according to a collaboration with WWF

Damien Verdier, Sodexo Group Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer said: “Sodexo is the first foodservices company to have a worldwide agreement with MSC for wild caught fish. Under this initiative, Sodexo will continue to work for a collaborative climate to improve fisheries management, promoting awareness of sustainability issues and encouraging suppliers, partners and clients to participate in the MSC program and support sustainable seafood practices.”

Initiatives already taken by Sodexo to promote MSC-certified seafood include:

• Becoming the first foodservices company in the Netherlands to obtain the MSC eco-label and certification in 2009
• Certifying 1,000 sites in the UK and Ireland with MSC
• Being assessed by Bureau Veritas Certification and complying with MSC Chain of Custody requirements in France. Sodexo in France sources certified MSC products such as cod (Pacific), pollock (Alaska), hoki (New Zealand) at the clients’ sites where it operates.

The commitment to source sustainable seafood is one of 14 Better Tomorrow commitments to protect the environment; improve nutrition, health & wellness; and support for local communities.