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California law aims to cut through ‘sustainable’ chatter,  set standards

California law aims to cut through ‘sustainable’ chatter, set standards

SACRMENTO Calif. A new law in California aims to bring meaning to the phrase “sustainable” when describing seafood, a move that restaurant operators say might help them navigate the complex flood of eco-claims about fish and shellfish.

Signed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in October, the bill charges the state’s Ocean Protection Council with establishing standards for sustainable fishing practices as well as a protocol for the labeling and marketing of seafood as a sustainable product in the state.

Under the legislation, the state government will not certify fisheries as environmentally well managed, but the Ocean Protection Council will offer guidelines and funding to help fisheries change their ways to become approved by an independent, third-party certifying agency that meets or exceeds standards established by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.

The legislation doesn’t identify the third-party certifiers that will enforce the rigorous standards. But one of the only such groups operating in the United States is the Marine Stewardship Council, or MSC, a London-based nonprofit that has certified 52 fisheries around the world, with another 113 going through the process.

California’s program would be voluntary, but supporters of the bill say offering the carrot of funding will help fisheries stop overfishing, switch to more environmentally friendly practices and protect the ocean ecosystem.

The legislation comes at a time when the notion of sustainability is impacting the buying habits of both consumers and restaurant operators who want to make better-for-the-planet purchases.

The term “sustainable,” however, is now loosely used as a catchall phrase by retailers and suppliers as well as on restaurant menus, and there is no legal definition or even agreement within the seafood industry about what it should mean.

Chefs say they want to do the right thing, but conflicting information from environmental and trade groups has left them confused and skeptical.

“I don’t think there’s a more complex issue,” said Matt Stein, chief seafood officer for King’s Seafood Co., based in Costa Mesa, Calif.

Observers say California is the first state to attempt to set standards for products on the market that will be labeled as sustainable.

The designation will differentiate products that are harvested in a way that considers the viability of the species, the impact on the eco-system and the environmentally sound management of the fisheries, said Kerry Coughlin, MSC communications director for the Americas.

It’s not clear whether products already certified by the MSC would also need to be labeled as “California certified,” or whatever term is developed, but the legislation will no doubt increase the number of fisheries in the Golden State that will seek certification by the nonprofit, whose standards were used as a model in developing the bill.

“Lots of restaurants now say they want to only carry sustainable seafood, but it’s really difficult for a chef to really know” the true story behind the seafood they buy, Coughlin said.

Anumber of operators are turning to MSC-certified products.

Foodservice contractors such as Compass and Aramark, as well as broadline distributor U.S. Foodservice, have made commitments to source MSC-certified product. Sodexo in September announced that it would source all contracted wild seafood purchases in North America from MSC-certified fisheries by 2015.

“At Sodexo, we’re seeing how consumers are increasingly interested in seafood because of its key role in healthy eating, as well as its role in the cultural and culinary traditions,” said Ann Oka, Sodexo’s senior vice president of supply management.

Displaying the MSC label on menus “will give Sodexo’s consumers a way to actively choose sustainable seafood,” she said, “and enables us to play a role in protecting and restoring at least some of the world’s wild fisheries.”

The legislation in California will also further that goal, said Mike Sutton, vice president of the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, Calif., which points to MSC-certified options in offering advice to consumers and restaurants about the best sustainable-seafood choices through its Seafood Watch program.

“Part of the intent of the bill is to prevent mislabeling or misleading labeling,” he said. “It’s a good thing that restaurants want to claim their products come from sustainable sources, but it really has to be verified.”

MSC certification also can help protect restaurants from accidental — or intentional — species substitution, an issue that has made headlines in recent years.

Last year, Florida’s attorney general concluded a two-year investigation into the misrepresentation of fish as grouper by restaurants there. Sysco Food Services-West Coast Florida Inc., a seafood supplier for 14 of the 17 restaurants investigated, agreed to update its seafood screening protocols, as well as pay $200,000 to reimburse the state for the cost of the investigation.

By some estimates, Coughlin said, up to half of salmon sold as wild is actually farm-raised.

MSC offers a chain-of-custody certification that verifies that product from sustainable sources is handled appropriately from fishery to table, including avoiding the co-mingling of sustainable and not sustainable products and ensuring traceability to the source, which Coughlin contends would prohibit species swapping.

Stein of King’s Seafood Co., which operates the King’s Fish House chain and several high-end seafood concepts, was happy to hear that the state government was getting involved.

“The government will be more quick to involve the industry and will be less prone to bias” than the nongovernmental groups that so far have set standards, he said.

King’s Seafood has developed its own standards for sustainability, with input from the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif.

“If we didn’t believe in the sustainability of the products, we’d take them off the menu,” Stein said.

Stein, however, is a proponent of farm-raised seafood, while groups like the Monterey Bay Aquarium say aquaculture has its own set of environmental challenges that must be addressed.

“The Monterey Bay Aquarium says don’t eat farm-raised salmon or farm-raised shrimp, but I don’t believe that’s good information for our planet,” Stein said. “If we’re going to follow the Food and Drug Administration’s guidelines for eating more seafood, we’re going to need aquaculture.”

The bill in California, however, does not address questions about farm-raised seafood. The bill only applies to wild seafood, as there are no international standards for farm-raised fish.

Gavin Gibbon, a spokesman for the National Fisheries Institute, an industry nonprofit dedicated to education about seafood safety and sustainability, described the California legislation as “another labeling regime.”

He pointed to other groups offering standards for sustainability, such as the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation developed by the tuna industry, and the Global Aquaculture Alliance.

“We’d like to see California consider other certification programs,” he said. “Different types of seafood have different sustainability stories.”

Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected].

 

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