Fish Face Seafood Blog | Campaign launched for greater seafood transparency

Staff writer

Last updated: 2 January, 2025 @ 15:31

A leading not-for-profit ocean conservation organisation is calling for greater transparency for seafood consumers in the European Union.

The Follow the Fish movement, by Oceana, says that owing to a loophole in EU law, currently only fresh and frozen fish are traced from sea to plate, whereas processed fish is not.

The campaign says that while seafood consumers are given crucial information such as species name, origin, production method and catch method for products such as cod fillets, they’re ‘left in the dark when it comes to processed products such as canned tuna, squid rings or fish fingers’.

‘Create a level playing field’

“Consumers have the right to make informed choices about what they eat, including when purchasing popular processed seafood like canned tuna and fish fingers,” said Vanya Vulperhorst, director of Oceana’s illegal fishing and transparency campaign in Europe and representative of the Follow the Fish movement

“We urge the EU and the new fisheries and oceans commissioner, Costas Kadis, to create a level playing field by making the same basic requirements apply to all seafood products – whether fresh, frozen, or processed.”

‘All seafood products’

The Follow the Fish movement said that the campaign ‘brings together a variety of key players, such as chefs, members of the European Parliament, restaurants, seafood businesses, wholesalers, producer organisations, consumer associations and NGOs’ to ensure that there is mandatory information on all seafood products.

To achieve this aim, representatives of the movement handed over a joint statement to the European Commission, outlining the following priorities:

Basic information such as species, origin, fishing gear and production method should be required for all seafood products.
The food service sector (mass-caterers, hotels and restaurants) should provide this basic information to their customers. They are currently exempted from doing so.
Consumer information should specify the flag state – the country of registration of the fishing vessel – for wild-caught seafood products.