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How to communicate responsible seafood consumption:  the VeriFish project kicks off in Brussels

Officially launched in Brussels on 14 May, the VeriFish Horizon Europe project will deliver an indicator framework to facilitate understanding of the complexity that lays behind the definition of sustainable seafood, to enhance communication about the importance of production and consumption of  sustainable seafood and aquaculture

Despite its potential advantages in terms of climate impact, sustainability, and nutrition, seafood is frequently disregarded or lumped together with meat. The potential benefits of seafood are often overlooked, particularly in the transition towards a sustainable, equitable and balanced protein system. Seafood consumption in Europe is low compared to meat products, and locally produced seafood often cannot compete with imported products because consumers do not know about or value local seafood. To enable healthy and sustainable choices, consumers need information about sustainability and nutrient values as well as provenance and potential health risks and benefits.

In this context the VeriFish project steps in. Funded under the HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-10  “Choose your fish: a campaign for responsible consumption of products from the sea” call and the Mission “Restore our oceans and waters”, the project will provide a framework of verifiable sustainability indicators based on existing EU and global databases. VeriFish will work on the creation of a prototype web application, a series of media products and recommendations for communicating sustainability indicators to various stakeholders including guidelines for retail and the hospitality sectors. The goal is to provide an accessible and dynamic framework for the improvement of communication and understanding of sustainable seafood production and consumption.

A framework of verifiable indicators

The primary goal of VeriFish is to develop ways to integrate indicators from different sources and to make recommendations for how to present and visualise different types of indicators in a uniform manner for a specific seafood type and consumer group. For that, VeriFish will elaborate a framework of verifiable indicators, considering environmental sustainability, social sustainability, origin, provenance, processes, health, and nutrition, leveraging on trustworthy data sources from FAO Global Record of Stocks and Fisheries, EUROFIR’s FoodEXplorer, FISHBASE, the global species database of fish species, and more.

Communicating about seafood sustainability

Several media products, including guidelines and a prototype web application, will be developed to help make informed consumption choices.

The indicators framework must not only be communicated to seafood producers and retailers, but also to policymakers, citizens and children. Therefore, a storytelling series, recipe books for kids, puzzles, and posters are among the planned product outputs. Finally, the project will develop and publish European Good Practice recommendations, co-designed with seafood sector stakeholders, on how to efficiently use the indicator framework to communicate with citizens. The VeriFish website will be launched in June at verifish.info from where one can also reach the project’s social media accounts on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

The Consortium

The VeriFish Kick-off meeting marked the beginning of a collaborative effort among eight international partners: Trust-IT Services (Italy) leading the consortium, COMMpla (Italy), FORTH (Greece), NOFIMA (Norway), Eurofish International Organization (Denmark), EUROFIR AISBL (Belgium), Premotec (Poland) and its affiliated company in Switzerland, Clupea (Netherlands). Additionally, a soon to come associated partner from the United Kingdom will join. Also, there is a sister project called “Mr GoodFish 3.0” that will  work synergistically under the same Horizon Europe call.

VeriFish is set to run for 24 months from 1 May 2024.

Image 1: Members of the VeriFish consortium at the kick-off meeting (from left to right). Back row: Alessandro Petrocelli (COMMpla), Marco Frederiksen (Eurofish), Peter Olsen (NOFIMA), Karl Presser (Premotec PLN), Ixai Salvo (Eurofish) Paul Finglas (EUROFIR), Yannis Tzitzikas (FORTH), Themis Altintzoglou (NOFIMA), Toni Bartulin (Eurofish), Yannis Marketakis (FORTH). Front Row: Sabrina Duri (Trust-IT), Sian Astley (EUROFIR), Sara Pittonet (Trust-IT), Marte Olsen (NOFIMA), Christine Absil (Clupea), Silje Steinsbo (NOFIMA), Michelle Boonstra (Clupea), Cristina González (EUROFIR)

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Fabio Grati

A fishery biologist presently employed at the National Research Council, Institute for Marine Biological Resources and Biotechnology (Ancona, Italy), he brings to the table more than thirty years of expertise in marine environmental conservation and sustainable resource management. Over the course of his career, he has overseen and participated in numerous international projects focused on understanding and mitigating anthropic impacts on marine ecosystems. Since 2019, he holds a membership in the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) under the European Commission. Within this role, he has chaired two STECF Expert Working Groups (EWG 22-12 and EWG 23-18), where he led efforts to establish scientifically robust yet accessible criteria and indicators for assessing the sustainability of fisheries products.

Andrea Fabris

Andrea Fabris born 11.08.1968, Italian, has a Veterinary Medicine full graduation achieved at the University of Parma. He has also a Specialization in “Farming, Hygiene, Pathology of Aquatic Species and Control of Derivative Products ” achieved at Udine University and a Specialization in “Animal Feeding” obtained at Bologna University.

Actually (from May 2016) he is Director of Associazione Piscicoltori Italiani (API – Italian Fish Farmers Association). At National level behalf of API he is member of some working groups at the General Direction for Fisheries and Aquaculture of Italian Ministry of Agriculture and Italian Ministry of Health regarding aquaculture EU rules and their implementation at national and regional level, and member of Exotic Species Aquaculture Committee – Italian Ministry of Agriculture. Lecturer on in training /courses organized by Ministry of Health, Universities and Local Veterinary Authorities; member of Board of Directors of SIPI (Italian Society of Fish Pathology).

He is also involved at international level with the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP) as Chairman of FEAP Fish Health and Welfare Commission. Andrea is part of the FVE (Federation of Veterinarians Europe) Aquaculture Working Group, and of FishMedPlus Coalition, and from the beginning member of Aquaculture Advisory Council (AAC) where is actually Chair of WG1 – Finfish.

He published as an author or co-author about 30 articles on international and national scientific journals concerning Fish pathology and Aquaculture and more than 60 issues on divulgative (fishermen and aquaculture producers associations) publications

Anne Marie Cooper

Anne shapes global sustainable fisheries and aquaculture policies through her work at the science-policy interface. Driven by a commitment to improving human lives and aquatic ecosystems, she serves as the Professional Officer for Fisheries and Aquaculture Advice at the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in Copenhagen, Denmark. Anne leads ICES’ efforts in developing and applying methods to provide scientific advice on data-limited fish and shellfish stocks in the Northeast Atlantic, covering over 60% of ICES stocks. She also heads the development of ICES’
advisory framework for sustainable aquaculture. Before joining ICES, Anne advised on national fisheries, aquaculture, climate, and marine science policy in the US Senate, House of Representatives, and NOAA. She holds a Ph.D. in Conservation Biology and Development Studies and Social Change Theory and an M.Sc. in Fisheries Science from the University of Minnesota.

Pedro Reis Santos

Irene Kranendonk is the Impact Manager at Fish Tales and a board member of the Fish Tales Foundation. Her work focuses on developing and guiding Fish Tales’ sourcing criteria including management of the environmental and social certification schemes. With the Fish Tales Foundation and local partner organizations, she drives social and environmental improvements in small scale fisheries. Irene holds a master’s degree from Wageningen University in Aquaculture and Marine Resource Management and is specialized in the field of fisheries ecology. In a previous role, Irene was sustainable seafood assessor for the Dutch seafood rating scheme the VISwijzer.

Irene Kranendonk

Irene Kranendonk is the Impact Manager at Fish Tales and a board member of the Fish Tales Foundation. Her work focuses on developing and guiding Fish Tales’ sourcing criteria including management of the environmental and social certification schemes. With the Fish Tales Foundation and local partner organizations, she drives social and environmental improvements in small scale fisheries. Irene holds a master’s degree from Wageningen University in Aquaculture and Marine Resource Management and is specialized in the field of fisheries ecology. In a previous role, Irene was sustainable seafood assessor for the Dutch seafood rating scheme the VISwijzer.