McDonalds will become the first U.S. chain restaurant to serve certified-sustainable fish at its locations.
The company announced that it would use this certified-sustainbale fish in all of its 14,000 U.S. locations and thefish will be marked wth the blue ecolabel from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).
The Huffington Post reportes that the fish was first certified in 2005, but they did a renewed review of the supply chain to make sure that it was sustainable and traceable.
Currently, the popular Filet-O-Fish sandwich and their new Fish McBites are made with MSC-certified Alaska Pollock and will appear on its packaging beginning in February.
A press release from McDonald's says, "We're extremely proud of the fact that this decision ensures our customers will continue to enjoy the same great taste and high quality of our fish with the additional assurance that the fish they are buying can be traced back to a fishery that meets MSC's strict sustainability standard."
In 2011, all of McDonald's chains in Europe started serving MSC-certified fish in their 7,000 restaurants. MSC's website states about the organization, "We are a global organisation working with fisheries, seafood companies, scientists, conservation groups and the public to promote the best environmental choice in seafood."
"It's exciting for us," Susan Forsell McDonald's vice president of sustainability for the U.S. said to The Los Angeles Times.
She said to The Los Angeles Times that it is an opportunity for McDonald's employees to talk about McDonald's efforts to source sustainable products.
"That will bring a huge boost in visibility to the Marine Stewardship Council, which suffered near invisibility for years, as its scientific teams slowly certified various fisheries as healthy and sustainably managed," reported The Los Angeles Times.
The nonprofit group, MSC, is paid by companies for using its label. The organization has about 300 fisheries in its program and represents between 12 to 14 percent of fisheries in the world, reports The AP.
Kerry Coughlin MSC's regional director of Americas said to the AP that McDonald's gets all of its fish from one U.S. Alaskan Pollock fishery.
"The Oak Brook-based burger giant is the first major restaurant chain to make such a claim about its fish. Though fish is a relatively small portion of the company's U.S. menu, McDonald's is one of the nation's largest purchasers. The announcement also ties in with the launch of Fish McBites in February," reported The Chicago Tribune.
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