FDF Response

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March 2009

FSA Consultation on Fish Consumption Advice

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is reviewing its dietary advice to consumers on fish consumption to take into account not only nutrition and food safety but wider sustainability issues. FSA issued a public consultation seeking stakeholders' views on an approach to including these wider aspects in future advice on fish consumption.

In our response, we explain why there is a strong case for leaving the Agency's advice unchanged given the complexity around presenting information with respect to stock of origin, area and age of capture and fishing method employed, in a way which enables consumers to make better choices. In an area with the complexities and uncertainties of fisheries management, including the lack of a generally accepted definition of what sustainability actually is, the case for doing so does not seem to have been made.

FDF would however support the possible inclusion of advice on shellfish and would continue to encourage the industry itself to do all it can to promote higher standards of sustainability.

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Last reviewed: 07 Apr 2009