The #SeafoodMattersUK event was held in June 2022 and brought together institutional seafood buyers – schools, hospitals, other institutions; community food groups; hospitality; convenience food outlets, retailers, food policy makers and food system researchers. The event included networking, presentations, panel sessions and demonstrations to discuss the UK seafood market and the challenges of increasing seafood consumption. A short summary report is now available to support stakeholder dialogue and prompt further research and collaborative actions. The report includes three key policy recommendations to encourage the consumption of affordable and nutritious seafood in the UK:

1. Ensure that seafood becomes part of a life-long, nutrient rich diet from early childhood. Orientation of parents, carers and teachers to the importance of seafood consumption for young children and inclusion in pre-school, primary and secondary school meals is critical. This will increase familiarity with seafood and normalise its consumption into adulthood. Mussels are fun, salmon is straightforward, canned mackerel is great value, pangasius is versatile.

2. Sustain international seafood trade, which provides livelihoods in developing countries and nutritious seafood options for UK consumers. Affordable imports can help lower-income consumers to access seafood, and complement UK wild-caught and farmed fish, shellfish and seaweed.

3. Encourage product innovation so that seafood arrives in supermarkets, restaurants, convenience food outlets in formats that consumers are familiar with and will enjoy. Create nutritional requirements for fast food that can be met by a greater inclusion of seafood in menus.

The other major output from the meeting was the following video, which was also featured in an earlier blog post about the event.

The event was led by the Universities of Stirling, Aberdeen and Lancaster and organised by ThinkAqua. It was funded by UKRI under the ARCH-UK initiative. Further information is available at the event website or from info@thinkaqua.org