The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) announced that the first certified sustainable shrimp product has hit the market. Tai Foong USA’s Northern Chef frozen cooked salad shrimp bearing the blue oval MSC logo are now on sale at Wegmans Food Markets.
The sustainably sourced wild-harvest shrimp come from the Oregon pink shrimp fishery, which in December of 2007 became the world’s first shrimp fishery to achieve MSC sustainability certification. The MSC is a global, independent nonprofit organization that has developed an internationally recognized standard for certifying sustainable, environmentally responsible and well-managed wild capture fisheries.
Through its Chain of Custody program, the MSC also certifies that throughout the processing and supply chain, any product bearing the MSC label has not been co-mingled with uncertified seafood. Independent third-party certifiers assessed both the Oregon pink shrimp trawl fishery and Tai Foong to the MSC standard before the Northern Chef salad shrimp was approved for use of the MSC label, which assures consumers that the product is from a sustainable fishery.
Davy Lam, president of Tai Foong USA, explained that his company is committed to procuring only environmentally friendly seafood products. “Working closely with the MSC and using the MSC blue eco-label on our products allows us to make our commitment to sustainability clear to consumers,” he said.
As of this week, the MSC-labeled Oregon pink shrimp product is available in the frozen seafood section of all 70 Wegmans Food Markets across the northeastern and mid-Atlantic United States.
“Wegmans always strives to offer the highest quality seafood products to its customers, and that means offering products that are environmentally responsible,” said Carl Salamone, vice president of seafood for Wegmans. “Working with the Marine Stewardship Council and carefully selecting our individual partner suppliers allows us to be proud of the seafood we display in our cases. We’re very excited to offer the first MSC-certified shrimp to our customers.”
Brad Ack, MSC’s regional director for the Americas, praised the Oregon pink shrimp fishery, Tai Foong USA and Wegmans for bringing the first certified-sustainable shrimp to the market. “Shrimp is one of the most popular seafood items in the world,” he said, “but shrimp harvesting has come under the spotlight for its environmental impacts. Now consumers concerned about those impacts can enjoy shrimp and know they aren’t contributing to any harm to ocean ecosystems when they choose the package with the MSC blue eco-label.”
MSC-labeled Northern Chef shrimp will soon be available in other stores across the U.S.A. – including the Schnucks and Super One Foods supermarket chains – and internationally.
