February 28, 2011

Spotlight on sustainable seafood

Not that you need any convincing, but now it’s official—the US National Restaurant Association has confirmed that Sustainable Seafood is a ‘hot trend.’ In their annual top 20, the What’s Hot in 2011 survey has at the top:

#1: Locally sourced meats and seafood
#3: Sustainability
#7: Sustainable seafood

Given that mobile devices are also a top trend, more of your diners will be using SeaChoice’s seafood guide iPhone app or Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch iPhone app to check which seafood on the menu is the ‘best choice.’ Check these rankings often to anticipate what diners will be looking for on your menu.

Another growing foodie trend? Rethinking farmed seafood. It’s true, net-cage farmed salmon has given ‘farmed fish’ a bad name, but not all aquaculture is associated with negative impacts. There are lots of sustainable farmed options, like farmed shellfish or farmed arctic char. And there’s even a ‘green’ farmed salmon option -- Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program issued a "Best Choice " rating for the salmon raised in freshwater, land-based tanks at Washington’s AquaSeed Corp. Look for it at Overwaitea stores in BC and Alberta under the SweetSpring label. AquaSeed plans to double production in the coming year to serve the increasing demand for salmon farmed in closed containment.

Unsung heroes make a comeback

Executive Chef Frank Pabst of Vancouver’s Blue Water Café celebrated the overlooked species of the ocean with the 7th annual Unsung Heroes Festival.

Over the month of February, Wild Salmon Supporter Chef Pabst avoided species that are over-fished or unsustainably fished in order to introduce his diners to lesser-known and plentiful options such as jellyfish, herring, seaweed and anchovy, among others. Sardine in a blanket with pine nut gremolata, cardoon, black olives, preserved grapefruit citrus chili gastrique? Sounds excellent!

Costco: the latest retail giant to announce a sustainable seafood policy

Costco has announced they are dropping red-listed fish from their stores! Under international pressure to sell a better product to their customers, the corporation announced a revised seafood policy just last week. The new policy covers most of Costco’s seafood inventory and halts the sale of 12 kinds of fish associated with severe environmental concerns, such as shark, orange roughy, Chilean sea bass and Atlantic halibut. While this list doesn’t include farmed salmon the company stated it will assess certification standards around farmed salmon. Costco has one of the worst track records when it comes to seafood policy and ranked 14th out of 20 in Greenpeace’s 2010 Carting Away the Oceans report for sustainability performance in the retail sector. There is still much room for improvement but these first steps are extremely positive.

Costco joins a growing list of retailers who are listening to their customers and are taking sustainable seafood more seriously. Last September, Whole Foods launched a science-based color-coded sustainability rating program for wild-caught seafood with the help of partners Blue Ocean Institute and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Earlier in 2010 Target announced its plan to remove net-cage farmed salmon from its shelves and Safeway partnered with FishWise to implement a comprehensive sustainable seafood policy.

Congratulations are in order!

Renowned chef, restaurateur and Wild Salmon Supporter Jamie Kennedy has been named a Member of the Order of Canada!

The Order of Canada is one of Canada’s highest civilian honours, recognizing outstanding service to the nation in arts, sciences, philanthropy and business. Chef Kennedy was awarded this honour in late December for his work promoting Canadian cuisine and the use of organic, sustainable and local foods.

Congratulations, Chef Kennedy!