Environmental claims are now commonplace in supermarket counters and aisles – but not all claims are created equal. SeaChoice’s study is the first to investigate the rigour of seafood environmental claims in the Canadian retail marketplace.

Environmental claims — logos and written statements — aim to take the guesswork out of the selection process for shoppers who want to make ocean-friendly seafood purchases. Moreover, these claims represent a mechanism through which seafood markets, including consumers, can indirectly influence fishery and aquaculture practices. In an ideal scenario, environmental claims should drive, and result in, “on the water” improvements in fisheries and fish farms.

However, not all environmental claims are created equal. Seafood environmental claims can be independent, such as third-party certifications and non-governmental endorsements, or private company self-declarations. All of these vary in their scope, accuracy, transparency and rigour. They can also vary in their interpretation of “sustainability,” as there are currently no regulations that strictly define the term for seafood, or any other commodity sold in Canada. Such ambiguity provides the potential for questionable claims to enter the market and can lead to greenwashing.

Greenwashing¹ can create an unwarranted favourable image of a company and has the potential to shift consumer preferences toward products that are not environmentally beneficial or sustainably produced. Misleading and unsubstantiated claims can lead to consumer confusion and skepticism. Because of this, greenwashing has the potential to undermine efforts and improvements aimed at true fisheries and aquaculture sustainability. 

Investigative Report

Our study, Certification, Verification or Fabrication? an investigation of seafood environmental claims in Canadian retailers, documents the prevalence, verifiability and quality of seafood environmental claims in the Canadian retail marketplace.

We gathered data about environmental claims by going to 18 supermarket locations across five Canadian cities and provinces: Vancouver, British Columbia; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Toronto, Ontario; Montreal, Quebec; and Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Our sample consisted of 234 environmental claims across 181 seafood products. The assessed claims include third-party certifications and endorsements, as well as private company self-declarations.

Download the executive summary and full report. 

Key findings

We documented the prevalence of seafood environmental claim types in Canadian retailers:

• The 234 seafood environmental claims we found consisted of 102 self-declarations (i.e., private company claims),  77 endorsements (e.g., Ocean Wise, Dolphin Safe) and 55 certifications (e.g., Marine and Aquaculture Stewardship Councils).
• Self-declared claims were the most frequent environmental claim type across the Canadian retail market. That means most claims in the Canadian market are not subject to any independent oversight or standard. 

 

We checked whether environmental claims were backed up by publicly available evidence:

Overall, 77% of all claims provided evidence to back up the claim. However, the availability of evidence varied between claim types: 

• Self-declarations: 60% provided evidence
• Endorsements: 84% provided evidence
• Certifications: 100% provided evidence

 

We investigated whether a claim’s product could be verified to be from environmentally friendly fisheries or farms:

Overall, only 58% of all claims were verified as products that were sourced from environmentally friendly² sources. Specifically:

• Self-declarations: 35% verified; 65% were unverifiable because product packaging and company websites lacked the evidence needed to substantiate them. Nine self-declared claims, where evidence was provided, were found to be from unsustainable sources. 
• Endorsements: 57% verified; 43% were unverifiable in part because confirming the sustainability of canned tuna products bearing third-party endorsements was difficult as company websites lacked the evidence needed to substantiate them. 
• Certifications: 100% verified. All certified products provided the evidence necessary to back up their claim

 

We tested to see whether environmental claims translated to better product labelling:

• 74% of all products with environmental claims had unsatisfactory or poor labelling. This finding was consistent with previous SeaChoice labelling studies. 
• Products examined rarely provided label information on the country of harvest, species name or harvest method — key information needed to substantiate claims. 

 

We compared self-declared claims against international best practice guidelines for environmental claims.

• Eight out of every ten self-declared claims were found to be vague and non-specific.
• Nearly a quarter of self-declared claims use the term “sustainable” (or a variation of) despite the recommendation by guidelines not to do so. 
• Over a third failed to provide an explanatory statement with the claim.
• While 91% of self-declared claims were relevant to the biggest environmental issue(s) related to the seafood product, only 14% also addressed social responsibility. Social social responsibility (e.g., human rights, slavery, etc.) is increasingly understood to be a significant concern with regard to the seafood industry.

 

Recommendations

Retailers and seafood companies: Prioritize sourcing products with certification claims over other types of claims, and where certifications are unavailable, choose endorsements over self-declared claims. When self-declared claims are used on products you sell, ensure they comply with international best practices for environmental claims (such as those of the ISO and ISEAL alliance).

Regardless of the claim type, evidence to back up claims should be clear, easily accessible and readily available to consumers.

Government: Establish better seafood labelling laws, like those of the European Union. This would help consumers substantiate the environmental credentials and claims of a given product. Specifically, seafood labels in Canada should have the following information: scientific name, geographic origin (where caught or farmed), production method (farmed or wild), and gear type or farming method. The implementation of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s mandated boat-to-plate traceability program will help provide the information needed for more detailed labelling

For self-declared claims, the government should strengthen requirements for the use of the terms “sustainable” or “responsible” by stipulating that third-party verification is the only acceptable evidence to support their use.

Consumers: Choose certified products where possible and complement these with endorsed products. Regardless of the claim type, but particularly when purchasing self-declared products, look for evidence to back up the claim on the product or website. Tell your retailer and the seafood companies that are sold within their stores that you expect this evidence to be provided.

If a product with an environmental claim lacks evidence to back it up, or if you suspect the claim may be a deceptive representation of the product (i.e., greenwashing), contact the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to report a food labelling concern. 

Further to the study, SeaChoice commissioned a YouGov survey that found Canadians are concerned with greenwashing and that seafood shoppers agree companies should back up their claims. Read more about our poll findings here.