Responsible seafood sourcing

Approximately half of the fish we sell is from wild capture fisheries, 86.8% of our wild caught seafood is independently certified to the MSC standard  

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international non-profit organisation which sets globally recognised standards for sustainable fishing and seafood traceability.  

When you buy our MSC certified fish or seafood, you can be sure that it comes from a traceable, sustainable wild source, a win-win for you and for the ocean.  

When you purchase a product with the blue MSC ecolabel on it, you: 

• Can trust where the fish or seafood comes from
• Are rewarding and incentivising sustainable fishing 
• Are protecting fishermen’s livelihoods, communities and traditions   
• Are ensuring there will be plenty of fish left in the sea
• Are helping keep seafood on the plate for this and future generations 

Sainsbury’s Commitment and engagement in Fisheries Improvements 

Where fisheries are not yet MSC certified and where improvement in practice or management are required to enable fisheries to meet the standard, we work with our suppliers and other stakeholders to develop and implement structed projects which will deliver the necessary improvements in a realistic timescale – Fisheries Improvement Projects or FIPs. We are also engaged in a number of industry organisations designed to facilitate and deliver improvements where wider engagements are required, e.g. in tuna fisheries which are fished by vessels from a number of different countries. 

• Global Tuna Alliance - an independent group of retailers and tuna supply chain companies working collectively to generate a step-change in sustainable tuna management across the world.
• North Pelagic Advocacy Group - formed by retailers and processors from across the UK and Europe to consider how the supply chain could drive improvements in the management of pelagic fisheries, including mackerel, in the NE Atlantic thus enabling certification to the MSC standard. 

Fish from farmed sources, also known as aquaculture already provides over half of all the fish product that we eat in the world and half of the fish that is sold by Sainsbury’s.  It’s the world’s fastest-growing food-producing sector, and it’s going to play a crucial role in helping to feed a planet with an ever-growing population.   

To help combat overfishing whilst providing our customers with the best quality, responsibly sourced fish, Sainsbury’s is committed to increasingly sourcing farmed seafood certified to the world’s leading certification standard, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC).  

We work with our suppliers to certify that all our farmed farms meets ASC standards. To meet the ASC standard, farms must undertake an independent audit in which their practice and performance is assessed against a host of strict, science-based requirements including the quality of the water, impact on the seabed, antibiotic use, fish health and welfare, through to the fair treatment and pay of workers on the farm. 

100% of our farmed seafood is independently certified to a credible best aquaculture practice standard. 

When you purchase a product with the ASC ecolabel on it, you: 

1. Can be certain of traceability throughout the supply chain, from farm to fork
2. Can be certain the ASC farmers adhere to strict environmental and social standards
3. Are helping to preserve fish for the future 

We are committed to uphold the highest of standards and do what we can to improve animal health and welfare by continuing to progress and ensure that decapod crustaceans come from responsibly well managed fisheries and farms with appropriate animal welfare measures in place.

Sainsbury’s has an Agriculture Team with an in-house veterinary specialist that manages the day-to-day responsibilities of animal welfare that includes marine and shellfish. Our Head of Aquaculture and Fisheries oversees the management of decapod crustaceans and undergoes regular welfare training. Governance of our sustainability strategy is managed by our Plan for Better Steering Committee with oversight from the Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Committee.

We are proud to have a collaborative and extensive certified supplier base where we can expect to work with best practices with regards to welfare. We continue to understand current practices through supplier visits and dedicate resources with aim to improve all aspects of all seafoods (including decapod crustaceans) welfare.

Our policy and supplier requirements for the welfare of all fish, shellfish and decapod crustaceans are covered in our internal Responsible Sourcing Manual (RSM) which we require all our suppliers to comply to.

To further improve the welfare of all fish and shellfish (including decapod crustaceans), farmed or wild, we are working with various industry experts, scientists and innovation companies to overcome challenges and find solutions. For example:

• We are 100% Ablation free for our chilled and frozen prawn supply chains
• We are funding comprehensive shrimp welfare project with our partner supplier looking holistically at behavioural welfare indicators from egg to harvest for our fresh and frozen shrimp to continuously improve the welfare of our farmed prawns
• In collaboration with shrimp welfare project and our partner supplier, we are trialling electrical stunning with all our fresh and frozen shrimp farmers and collaborating with Stirling University to verify this method at which point we will roll out fully to all our source shrimp farms, estimated end of 2026
• We are actively engaged as a key stakeholder in and funding a project to design, develop and roll out electrical stunning on board our scampi vessels
• 100% of our brown crab and lobster is electrically stunned prior to harvest

In order to deliver our overarching objectives for sustainable seafood, we recognise the need for effective, pre-competitive collaboration, supporting a number of organisations driving responsible practice through pre-competitive collaboration and innovation. Through this Sainsbury’s are active members of a number of organisations which align with our vision.

Organisations we work with 

Global Tuna Alliance 

Sainsbury’s is a member of the Global Tuna Alliance which is an independent group of retailers and tuna supply chain companies working collectively to generate a step-change in sustainable tuna management across the world. The GTA is committed to:

• The avoidance of illegal, unreported or unregulated products
• Improved traceability
• Environment sustainability
• Pressing work on human rights in tuna fisheries
• Implementing the objectives laid out in World Economic Forum's Tuna 2020 Traceability Declaration as championed by Friends of Ocean Action

The GTA work collaboratively with member and non-member organisations to find industry-wide solutions to efficiently find and implement solutions and make improvements on:

• Tuna traceability
• Socially responsible tuna supply chains
• Environmentally responsible tuna sources
• Government partnerships

For more information click here.

North Atlantic Pelagic Advocacy Group 

Sainsbury’s is a member of the North Pelagic Advocacy Group which was formed by retailers and processors from across the UK and Europe to consider how the supply chain could drive improvements in the management of pelagic fisheries, including mackerel, in the NE Atlantic thus enabling certification to the MSC standard.

For more information click here.

Fisheries Innovation Scotland 

Sainsbury’s are members of Fisheries Innovation Scotland which is a unique public-private collaboration between seafood experts, government and scientists to champion innovation and positive change in the Scottish fishing industry. FIS connects the seafood supply chain around shared opportunities for innovation to make Scottish fisheries more prosperous and sustainable by creating a pre-competitive environment for effective collaboration.  A great example of this is the FIS “Smartrawl” project which aims to deliver a step change in intelligent fishing through the development and testing of novel technologies to allow in-water identification and grading of fish by species and size.

For more information click here.

Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability 

We are very proud to be Steering Committee members of the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST), which are ‘global standards to bring reliable, affordable, and efficient traceability to the seafood industry’. The GDST is an international, business-to-business platform established to advance a unified framework for interoperable seafood traceability practices.

The Dialogue brings together a broad spectrum of seafood industry stakeholders from across different parts of the supply chain, as well as relevant civil society experts from diverse regions. GDST have developed industry standards (known officially as GDST 1.0) to; improve the reliability of seafood information, reduce the cost of seafood traceability, contribute to supply chain risk reduction, and contribute to securing the long-term social and environmental sustainability of the sector.

Sainsbury’s are engaged in discussions around implementation of GDST aligned digital pilots with some of our suppliers. We are also in conversation with the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) around piloting of the ASC digital Key Data Elements (KDE) system (firstly for Vietnamese warm water prawns).

Our plan is to trial these systems, incorporate key learnings from pilots and progress to roll out across the global seafood supply chain. The ASC system should deliver for the entire farmed seafood supply base. As well as in farmed seafood, conversation is underway with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) in respect to wild fish traceability, and it is understood that MSC are working on a digital traceability solution.

As a member of the Steering Committee, Sainsbury’s is a part of, “promoting the uptake of the GDST standards, providing technical implementation support, managing multiple partnerships with other industry platforms and associations, addressing relevant policy and regulatory issues, and curating the technical standards themselves”

We work with the GDST to ensure that our sourcing credentials are in line with what our customers expect, sustainable fishing from licenced areas and vessels, with full traceability.

For more information click here.

Global Ghost Gear Initiative 

Abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) has become a huge problem in our oceans. Studies suggest that fishing gear lost from boats accounts for around 10% of all the plastic currently in the ocean. These modern plastics can last up to 600 years in the marine environment continuing to capture and kill animals for much of its lifespan. The Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) is the world’s largest cross-sectoral alliance committed to driving solutions to the problem of ALDFG (also known as ghost gear) worldwide.

Sainsbury’s were the first retail member of GGGI having joined in 2015 and have worked as part of GGGI to develop best practice guidance for fisheries to identify and tag gear and for recording, reporting and recovery of any gear lost at sea. We have shared this guidance with our suppliers and are in process of tracking implementation with our suppliers.

For more information click here.