TITLE:
Retail Seafood Waste Prevention: Reducing Retail and Consumer Fresh-Fish Waste by Cooking Directly from Frozen
AUTHORS:
Thomas O’Donnell, Solomon H. Katz, Alexandra Romey, Benjamin Fulton, Linda Croskey, Pete Pearson, Jonathan Deutsch
KEYWORDS:
Seafood, Waste, Cooking, Fisheries, Consumers, Retail
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.12 No.3,
March
24,
2021
ABSTRACT: More than 30% of fish caught from the world’s oceans are never eaten by
consumers adding a significant but unnecessary strain to the sustainability of
global fisheries. Although a lot of this loss occurs at sea, in developed
countries, a significant amount happens at retail stores and in households.
People can help with this problem if they find and use new ways to interact
with their retailers and with the way they store and cook seafood at home. Consumers
can primarily purchase seafood that has never been frozen, was previously
frozen, or is still frozen. Nearly all retail waste occurs when consumers do
not buy seafood within a few days after it is in the unfrozen, display cases,
forcing the stores to dispose of the fish in landfills or sewage plants. An estimated 220 million 4-ounce meal portions of the most popular seafood
in the United States including shrimp, salmon, and cod meet this fate. This
number can be reduced to the direct extent consumers can be persuaded to buy
and cook from frozen. Retailers are motivated to sell more frozen seafood
because profit margins are reported to be higher and labor and disposal costs
are lower. Many stores also benefit from their brand’s sustainability image,
and contributions to corporate, national, and international waste reduction goals. Their challenge has been to educate and
encourage consumers to choose frozen before fresh. Taste-testing evidence
gathered in this study demonstrated that consumers could adopt easy, new
culinary skills to cook seafood from frozen that tastes just as good as what
they are used to. Our studies also highlighted other consumer benefits, including:
less fish handling required, simple preparation, easier meal planning, water
savings, and higher levels of food safety. Based on these results it will be
beneficial for stores to commit resources to consumer education and promote
more frozen seafood sales in other ways that satisfy their management goals. Increasing
consumer adoption can drive changes at the store level that will provide
measurable contributions to seafood waste reduction.