Fish out of water : consumers’ unfamiliarity with the appearance of commercial fish species

Cusa, Marine; Falcão, Luara; De Jesus, Joseph; Biolatti, Cristina; Blondeel, Lancelot; Bracken, FSA; Devriese, Lisa; Garcés-Pastor, Sandra; Minoudi, Styliani; Gubili, Chrysoula; Acutis, PL; Mariani, Stefano

Abstract

Seafood labels play an increasingly key role in assisting consumers in purchasing processed and featureless fish products, and in encouraging sustainable fishing and aquaculture practices. While informed purchasing choices are typically influenced by traceability and labelling awareness, they also depend on the consumers’ ability to identify and discriminate the fish species available on the market, which to date remains notably unexplored. We asked 720 people across six European countries to identify pictures of six fish species commonly sold in Europe. We reveal that European consumers have a poor understanding of the appearance of the fish they consume (overall ∼ 30% correct identification), with British consumers performing the poorest and Spanish ones doing best. We noted cultural association with some species, whereby the most regionally consumed fish are more easily recognized. We argue that despite recent improvements in technological solutions, stakeholder dialogue, and policy implementation, seafood market transparency will remain open to malpractice until consumers restore connection with their food.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 15, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Mar 15, 2021
• Publication Date: Jul 15, 2021
• Deposit Date: Apr 1, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 1, 2021
• Journal: Sustainability Science
• Print ISSN: 1862-4065
• Electronic ISSN: 1862-4057
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 1313-1322
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-00932-z
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-00932-z
• Related Public URLs: http://link.springer.com/journal/11625
• Additional Information: Funders : European Union Collaborative Agreement 613688;EU Interreg Atlantic Area Program;CAPES Foundation grant, Ministry of Education of Brazil; Grant Number: EU FP7 KBBE.2013.2.4-01; Grant Number: EAPA87/2016 ‘SEATRACES’