Frozen fish generates less waste

A recent study conducted by the UK Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) on waste in the fish and seafood supply chain shows that there is less retail waste in frozen fish products (1%) than in fresh fish (5%).

These figures gathered from major supermarkets in the UK provide an overall estimate of 6800 tonnes per annum of retail waste for 17 species of interest, including white fish, pelagic fish, finfish from aquaculture and shellfish. However, the study makes it clear that "for the purposes of the report, retail waste is defined as products that do not sell at full price, and so are considered as a commercial waste to the retailer; it does not necessarily reflect the amount of material that goes for final disposal." As frozen fish keeps better, retailers can cut the amount of products that end up as waste.

The study also gives figures on the percentage of frozen fish on the British market, per species, and further research by WRAP showed that household disposal of fish and shellfish amounted to 43 000 tonnes per annum with a total value of GBP 250 million (www.wrap.org.uk ).

Commenting on a tweet on January 23, 2011 from Kantar Worldpanel, claiming frozen fish was "outperforming the total frozen market with growth of 3.1%", the Web site www.talkingretail.com claims that this is due to consumers not being solely led by price, but also by other factors, primarily environmental and food-safety concerns.