Swedish school-children will be able to choose certified sustainable fish from their school menus from next year.  The Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC’s) [1] new schools project will encourage awareness about sustainable fishing and the MSC in Swedish schools and develop the availability of sustainable seafood within the foodservice sector.  The project – which launches on December 1st – is being supported by PostkodStiftelsen (the Swedish Postcode Lottery Foundation). It is based on a hugely successful UK project - Fish & Kids - that has already reached around 900,000 pupils and their families in its first two and a half years.

The business idea of the Swedish Postcode Lottery is to collect as much money as possible for charitable causes. Since it was founded in 2005 the Swedish Postcode Lottery has amassed over 48 million pounds for the non-profit sector. PostkodStiftelsen is a beneficiary of the Swedish Postcode Lottery.

Gothenburg-born Susanna Blomqvist joins the MSC to lead the project. Susanna says: “I am very excited to be taking the MSC concept to Sweden’s schools. This is a great opportunity for schools to demonstrate how their values of sustainability have real meaning. The MSC logo on school menus will assure parents that the fish their children are eating comes from certified sustainable fisheries and hasn’t contributed to the problems of overfishing.” 

As well as working with local education authorities and foodservice providers to introduce MSC-certified seafood to school lunches and put the logo on school menus, Susanna will also take charge of adapting the education resources – popular in the UK version of the project – and developing them to suit Swedish schools. 

Rupert Howes, Chief Executive of the MSC says: “The MSC schools and foodservice project has been hugely successful in the UK and I am really pleased that thanks to the generosity of the Svenska Postkod Stiftelsen we now have the opportunity to replicate this important educational project in Sweden, a market that has shown great receptiveness and interest in the sustainability message and already has a high recognition and awareness of the MSC programme. I am also delighted that Susanna  has joined the MSC team to lead the project.”

Helena Thybell, General Manager of the Svenska PostkodStiftelsen says: “Our ocean’s ecosystem is suffering because of the effects of overfishing. PostkodStiftelsens support for this project will increase the Swedish school children’s knowledge of how the ocean is affected, and thereby increase their parents’ awareness too. Long term, this can lead to a change in consumption habits.”

See www.fishandkids.org for more information on the UK project

Ends

Notes to Editors

[1] The MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) is an international non-profit organisation that was set up in 1997 to promote solutions to the problem of overfishing. The MSC runs the only widely recognised environmental certification and eco-labelling program for wild capture fisheries. It is the only seafood eco-label that is consistent with the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards and UN FAO guidelines for fisheries certification. The FAO “Guidelines for the Eco-labelling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries” require that credible fishery certification and eco-labelling schemes include:

- Objective, third-party fishery assessment utilising scientific evidence;

- Transparent processes with built-in stakeholder consultation and objection procedures;

- Standards based on the sustainability of target species, ecosystems and management practices.

The MSC has offices in London, Seattle, Tokyo, Sydney, The Hague, Edinburgh and Berlin.  In total, more than 120 fisheries are engaged in the MSC program with 38 certified, 85 under assessment and another 20 to 30 in confidential pre-assessment. Together the fisheries record annual catches of more than 5 million tons of seafood. Of fish for human consumption, they represent more than 42 percent of the world’s wild salmon catch, 42 percent of the world’s prime whitefish catch and 18 percent of the world’s lobster catch.  Worldwide, more than 1,900 seafood products resulting from the certified fisheries bear the blue MSC eco-label. For more information, please visit www.msc.org