Why you should you serve sustainable seafood and how you can ensure you really are
By Jennifer Hill Booker
There has been a lot of discussion on the topic of sustainability in our foodservice industry’s supply chain. Everything from what ingredients to buy, where we get them, from who and how they are sourced. This extends to the cost of running a business that only uses sustainable ingredients or one that doesn’t use it at all.
The discussion has spilled over to a topic gaining traction: sustainable seafood. With so many ways – and places – to buy your seafood, what does sustainable seafood actually mean and why should we buy it?
What It Means to Be Sustainable
Let’s start with understanding a few terms like aquaculture, wild caught, farm-raised and, of course, sustainable seafood.
Aquaculture refers to the breeding, rearing and harvesting of animals and plants in all types of water environments. It is now considered one of the most efficient ways to produce protein. Wild caught is what it sounds like – catching different species of fish in their natural environment. Farm-raised, a term most chefs and restaurant owners are familiar with, is actually another name for aquaculture. It includes fish that are raised in a controlled environment, such as ocean pens or tanks.
Now let’s talk about sustainable seafood and what role it may play in the future of restaurant menus. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is housed under the U.S. Department of Commerce, “sustainable seafood is fish, shellfish and seaweeds harvested or farmed in a manner that provides for today’s needs while allowing species to reproduce, habitats to flourish and productive ecosystems to be available for future generations.”
This means that sustainable seafood practices are in place to consider the long-term health of their environment, the livelihoods of people who depend on the environment – such as fisheries and fishermen – and the ability of the species to reproduce and replenish their populations.
Unfortunately, not all seafood marked “sustainable” is actually a sustainable species, raised or wild caught in a sustainable manner. So how do you know what you’re buying?
Luckily, we can rely on organizations like the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) to provide guidelines and certifications that ensure seafood is harvested responsibly. The ASC has created a certification and labeling process that establishes protocol on farmed seafood. These processes help ensure sustainable aquaculture and range from checking water quality and responsibly sourcing feed to maintaining disease prevention and animal welfare. Once aquaculture facilities pass their initial audit, that farm’s seafood can be sold in retail stores with the ASC label on its pack. Every package of ASC-labeled seafood is traceable back to ASC-certified farms, which helps chefs and restaurants learn where their seafood comes from.
This is where groups like Smart Catch and Coalition for Sustainable Aquaculture (CSA) bridge the gap from suppliers to menus. Both are dedicated to helping chefs make informed decisions about seafood sourcing and adding it to their menus in a cost-effective way.
Smart Catch is led by a team of dedicated experts, many of whom are chefs and restaurant owners who are passionate about protecting our oceans and supporting responsible practices. They offer support to chefs and restaurants by helping them make sustainable menu choices that fit their vision and their budget.
The CSA is a group made up primarily of award-winning chefs, leading environmentalists, seafood farmers and industry leaders wanting to integrate sustainable seafood into their restaurants. This group focuses on Americans having access to responsible, sustainable, locally sourced seafood in grocery stores, restaurants, farmers’ markets and homes.
Both of these groups encourage partnerships with suppliers who prioritize sustainability and ethical practices. All of this is done to help guarantee that the seafood we serve is truly sustainably sourced.
Contributing to the Conversation
So now we know what aquaculture, wild captured, farm-raised and sustainable seafood means. We know that there are agencies in place ensuring that it’s properly sourced and that there are groups out there supporting our efforts. Now the big question is, how do we make our customers care?
In a 2020 Forbes article, Chef Sammy Monsour, co-founder of Coalition of Sustainable Aquaculture, put it best.
“Sustainable seafood is simple,” says Monsour, “a science-based set of guidelines provides us with information needed to ensure that we’re eating fish that’s caught or raised with the health of all marine life, our oceans and the planet in mind.”
Chef Monsour is co-owner of Preux & Proper in Los Angeles. His work is tightly bound to his belief in mindfulness. “Food is life and death. Food is everything,” he says. “Food is culture. Food is celebration. Food is emotion. Food is medicine.”
Chefs have the ability to influence how people eat. “We can contribute,” he says, “by sourcing sustainable seafood and using our menus as a platform to inspire our crew, community and country to take action.”
Adding sustainable seafood can be as easy as switching out what’s on your menu to those on an approved list. Currently there are multiple guides that list which seafood is sustainable and those to avoid. They are region-specific, and may offer seafood suggestions based on cultural and social preferences of that particular region.
There is, of course, a list of seafood that is not currently sustainable and should be avoided. They include, but are not limited to, bluefin tuna, Atlantic halibut, eel, orange roughy, most imported shrimp and Chilean sea bass. If these items are currently on your menu, you can find sustainable alternatives referencing one of the guides listed in the sidebar on page 12.
Even if you’re not currently serving seafood, you can still share the benefits of buying, serving and eating sustainable seafood with your customers through literature and maybe even a seafood-themed special or pop-up menu.
Either way, sustainable seafood is the most environmentally efficient source of protein on the planet. By serving a sustainable version, you’re playing a part in efforts to allow species to reproduce, habitats to flourish, and for those to be available for future generations.
