Source Fish Responsibly with the Sustainable Restaurant Association

With UK waters brimming with fabulous seafood in the summer months, there could be no better time for restaurants to be sourcing and serving the most delicious fish. From the UK’s 10,000+ chippies which serve a staggering 380m portions of fish and chips, right through to fine dining restaurants dishing up the most luxurious shellfish, every eatery in the land can play its part in ensuring a healthy future for our oceans.

That’s why throughout July, the Sustainable Restaurant Association is running a month long campaign calling on the whole foodservice sector to serve responsibly sourced seafood. And because this can be a very complex and sometimes controversial topic we’ve joined forces with all of the major expert organisations as well as spoken to some of the finest exponents of sustainable seafood menus.

The statistics make grim reading, what with 90% of the world's fish stocks either fully or overexploited and marine populations having halved since the 1970s. But, as they say, yesterday’s news quickly becomes tomorrow’s fish and chip paper and is easily forgotten. Tell people enough bad news and the temptation is to stop listening. Offer some hope and achievable solutions and you start to change the landscape.

As a major first step on the road to a healthier future for our fish stocks, we’re asking all foodservice operators to remove the worst – all fish rated ‘5’ by the MCS.

We’ve also combined with the MCS and their counterparts at Marine Stewardship Council, Fish2Fork, Aquaculture Stewardship Council, Sustainable Fish Cities, Soil Association and Freedom Food to create an easy-to-use toolkit. It’s designed to make what can be a complex subject not just manageable, but also easy to navigate and implement.

In addition to the expertise of all of the major organisations working in these waters, we’ve tapped into the extensive expertise of those who are serving seafood on a daily basis – from across the spectrum, high street to high end.

There’s huge inspiration to be taken from Jack Stein, Director of Food at Rick Stein restaurants, who, when he learned of the plight of wild sea bass, sat down with his team, including renowned chef, father Rick, and took the decision to remove a customer favourite that had been a mainstay of The Seafood Restaurant menu since the doors opened at this Cornish institution more than 40 years ago.

Caroline Bennett of Moshi Moshi shares her incredible journey from opening a sushi restaurant just so she could access Bluefin tuna 25 years ago and her Damascene experience, to today when her menu is built around a selection of line caught fish from Cornwall.

Former deckhand and Michelin Star chef Alex Aitken, has a net-full of seafood knowhow to impart from his Dorset kitchen at The Jetty. Tim Bouget explains how just along the coast in Devon customers of his small group of eateries are enjoying a mix of local, seasonal, line-caught fish and MSC certified cod and haddock.

We’ve also brought in two of Britain’s tiptop chippies, Kingfisher and The Bay for the expertise in serving sustainable seafood at scale.

Zoe Stennett-Cox, explains the challenges of balancing clients’ demands with a robust seafood sourcing policy.

Now is the time for all foodservice businesses to grab their seafood menu, log on to the Food Made Good website and prepare to share their seafood triumphs, as well as the ones that got away. Promote your restaurants commitment to sourcing sustainable seafood and ask your diners for feedback on your fish menu through Fish2Fork DinerRatings. We’d urge all to come and join the conversation on social where you can tantalise your customers with fishy tales and photos too @FoodMadeGood #GoodFishGoodDish.

Tom Tanner, Sustainable Restaurant Association