Shift from ‘big 5’ imports to British fish such as sprats and sardines would help diets and the planet, say researchers
Supermarkets could help to support British consumers to move away from their reliance on mainly imported seafood – the “big 5” of cod, haddock, tuna, salmon and prawns – to more sustainable, nutritious and locally caught fish such as sardines and anchovies, researchers say.
A study by the University of East Anglia (UEA), which confirmed previous research showing consumers did not eat the recommended amount of fish in their diet, suggests the UK could be overlooking a major opportunity to improve national health as well as bolstering local economies by embracing its own rich populations of nutritious small fish.
Seafood consumption fell by 25% over the past decade, the new study shows. Younger people were least likely to eat fish, while pensioners were most likely to eat a variety of seafood. Sales in supermarkets, where most people buy their fish, were heavily concentrated around the “big five”.
Dr Silvia Ferrini, the lead researcher on the study from the UEA’s centre for social and economic research on the global environment, said much of the decline in seafood consumption in what was considered a “fish nation” last century was down to the “curse of modernity, in which we don’t eat simple food that is local”.
