Retail Seafood Waste Prevention: Reducing Retail and Consumer Fresh-Fish Waste by Cooking Directly from Frozen

• 作者: Thomas O’Donnell Solomon H. Katz Alexandra Romey Benjamin Fulton Linda Croskey Pete Pearson Jonathan Deutsch
• 来源期刊: 食品与营养科学(英文)
• 学科: 经济
• 关键词: SEAFOOD WASTE COOKING FISHERIES Consumers RETAIL
• 年，卷（期）: 2021,（3）
• 页码范围: 290-307
• 页数: 18页
• 分类号: F42

摘要

More than 30% of fish caught from the world’s oceans are never eaten by consumers adding a significant but unnecessary strain to the sustainability of global fisheries. Although a lot of this loss occurs at sea, in developed countries, a significant amount happens at retail stores and in households. People can help with this problem if they find and use new ways to interact with their retailers and with the way they store and cook seafood at home. Consumers can primarily purchase seafood that has never been frozen, was previously frozen, or is still frozen. Nearly all retail waste occurs when consumers do not buy seafood within a few days after it is in the unfrozen, display cases, forcing the stores to dispose of the fish in landfills or sewage plants. <span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">An </span></span></span><span><span><span style="font-family:;" "=""><span style="font-family:Verdana;">estimated 220 million 4-ounce meal portions of the most popular seafood in the United States including shrimp, salmon, and cod meet this fate. This number can be reduced to the direct extent consumers can be persuaded to buy and cook from frozen. Retailers are motivated to sell more frozen seafood because profit margins are reported to be higher and labor and disposal costs are lower. Many stores also benefit from their brand’s sustainability image, and contributions to corporate, national, and international waste reduction </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">goals. Their challenge has been to educate and encourage consumers to choose</span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> frozen before fresh. Taste-testing evidence gathered in this study demonstrated that consumers could adopt easy, new culinary skills to cook seafood from frozen that tastes just as good as what they are used to. Our studies also highlighted other consumer benefits, including: less fish handling required, simple preparation, easier meal planning, water savings, and higher levels