Last week we went to the National Fish and Chip awards luncheon and presentation Ceremony as National Finalists for both the Independent Shop of the Year and the Good Catch Award.

Unfortunately we didn’t win either, this was particularly disappointing with regards to the Good Catch award as this is a subject that is very important to us.

Thank you to everyone who sent us great messages of support they were greatly appreciated, we will continue to be very proud of being in the top Ten in the UK!

The Dispatches program as part of the weeks programs on Fish took a very Broad Brush approach to the issues is covered about Fish retailing across Supermarkets and Fish and Chip Shops.

There are over 10,000 Fish and Chip shops with over 90% being individual operators there is a very great diversity of approaches and standards, it is however completely unreasonable to ignore the efforts of outlets which are trying hard to ensure they have a responsible approach to sourcing including traceability, this is a growing community thanks to the industry initiatives headed by MSC and MCS with recognition, education and guidance from the Good Catch initiative.

There program focused heavily on Fresh Fish either frozen after on shore processing and defrosted for retail sale or sold fresh without freezing.

Fish can be held in ice on boats for potentially 15 days and then  taken to market followed by transportation and preparation before being delivered to retailers, therefore potentially 18 days old.

There was no mention that a lot of the Fish and Chip industry uses ‘Frozen at Sea’ fish which is frozen within 3 – 6 hours of being caught then after 12 hours average defrost we use for a maximum of 3 days therefore ensuring that the fish we use is no more than 4 days from being taken out of the ocean.

When we do use fresh fish at Alfie Grimshaw’s, it is only fish caught within 3 days of the boat landing it’s catch at harbour.

The program made a big issue of holding frozen food for a number of months?

This is the whole point of freezing, it also provides for supply during periods such as spawning times where it is essential to cease fishing.

So long as the fish is within the accepted industry use by dates for frozen foods then there is no issue.

The real issue raised by the program is species mis-labelling as this causes real issues, not least of which is a serious trust issue with our customers, Alfie Grimshaw has never mis-labelled any product sold, we will always buy the best quality even if that means not having a specific species or having to increase the price.

When you are used to quality Cod cooked properly you will be expecting a very distinctive fish in terms of strong white colour and large flakes, as Pangasius has a very different texture and does not have a clean flavour as our cod I would expect customers to be able to identify the difference immediately.

The program also discussed a range of other issues which I eould like to provide out position on: Scampi and the variety of forms it can be sold in, Alfie Grimshaw only uses Scampi made from Whole tails of Scampi and is not reformed.

Non of our products contain Phosphates, primarily because this has a detrimental affect on the quality of the product in terms of additional water retention.

No product at Alfie Grimshaw uses Minced Fish.

Traceability is critical and has always been very important to Alfie Grimshaw.

In summary I feel that the dispatches program covered many very important issues with regards to the retailing of Fish and Seafood I was however disappointed that it did not make any reference to so many of the excellent initiatives that are educating and supporting retailers to be aware of these issues.

As one of the top ten National finalists of the independent fish and chip shop of the year competition I was invited on a ‘study trip’ to Norway, when the agenda arrived it looked too good to be true but the reality was far greater and certainly one of the best experiences of my life.

We flew from Heathrow, via Oslo, to Alesund where we would be staying. Arriving there at around 19:30 we were taken by coach straight to the largest Aquarium in Northern Europe and met by the head of the Aquarium who gave us a private tour. What was really interesting was that the aquarium focused on species of Fish and Sealife that exist of the coast of Norway and not on the more exotic and tropical species.

It was a great opportunity to see Cod, Haddock, Coley, Ling and Mackerel, all real favourites with our customers, in the huge tanks displaying their natural behaviour.

A superb banquet based on Klipfisk, which is dried salted cod and a very significant product for the Norwegians, not just internally but also for export to Spain, Portugal and South America.

The Klipfisk was served Curried and Portugese style with tomatoes and peppers.

It was really interesting to try and had a strong flavour with good texture.

The next morning we all breakfasted ready for a 9am start.

We were taken a short distance in Alesund to a boat station where a ‘rib boat’ was waiting, we were given all in one warm waterproof suits to wear along with goggles.

I headed straight for the front of the boat to get the most extreme experience, all was great until we hit the wake of a ferry and the front of the boat, with me, was ,launched about 8 feet into the air about 4 times. The one hour trip through the Fjords was fantastic in terms of both sheer exhilaration and the stunning scenery.

We arrived at the mooring of two Norwegian Trawler Vessels, the Granit IV and the Ramoen, both of these vessels are what is called ‘frozen at sea’ vessels which means that they process there catch whilst at sea and freeze as fillets within 2 – hours of it being caught, very similar to frozen peas.

I like to use ‘Frozen at Sea’ fish as when we have defrosted it we know that the fish is no more the 24 hours from being caught as we first serve it to our customers.

We were shown fantastic hospitality with extensive tours of both boats and the opportunity to aks any questions for the owners, captains and factory managers.

The experience was fantastic and there are three key things that really stood out:

The crew facilities were fantastic with an excellent canteen, recreation area and individual cabins for every crew member with bed, sitting area and television. When we discussed this we found out that about 10 years ago the fishing industry lost a significant number of key people to the Norwegian oil industry and they realised that they needed to build trawlers with a higher standard of accommodation and facilities to entice these people back or keep current personnel.

The complexity of the equipment on board for the processing of the fish is amazing and the way that the hails are managed to ensure not too much fish is ever landed at a time so that the quality of processing, grading, freezing and packaging cane be consistently maintained.

Finally the technology in the bridge combined with the knowledge and experience of the captains means that they can find a school of fish and identify the species along with a good estimate of the size, which can then be verified with a small test trawl.

After a superb lunch onboard the Granit IV we had two small ‘day boats’ arrive to take us back to Alesund with some fishing on the way which would be cooked four our dinner.

I was onboard an old fashioned wooden ‘schooner’ type vessel dating back to 1905, which had been beautifully restored, but luckily with the addition of an engine rather than us relying on the sails,

We stopped on route for some ‘rod and line’ fishing, after a couple of attempts we found ourselves over a school of Coley and quickly caught over 200 superb fish.

We the steamed back to Alesund harbour, at a rather more sedate pace than we had come out in the morning which gave us great chance to enjoy the scenery and talk with our Norwegian hosts onboard.

Upon arrival at Alesund harbour we moored next to our hotel and one of the region’s top chefs was waiting to take our catch from us and prepare it for our meal. After a chance to wash nthe day away and change for a formal evening banquet I was seated with a group of our Norwegian hosts to enjoy a 6 course meal of superb fish cooked creatively to perfection, along with some fine wines and great company we all had a fantastic evening.

We started Wednesday morning with a private viewing of the Alesund museum and a tour of the town, which is famous for having been almost completely burnt to the ground in 1905, Following this we had a presentation from Knut Sunnana who is a senior Norwegian scientist and head of advice and research in the Barents Sea. This was a great opportunity to fully understand the science behind all that we had been hearing about the huge stocks of fish in the Barents Sea, we were not disappointed as Knut provided really interesting information about their understanding of the behaviour of the fish along with how they track different species and monitor the levels of fish in the Barents and Nordic Seas.

The basic outcome, supported by the information provided by Knut Sunnana, is that the Norwegian and Russian governments have done an excellent job for the last 10 years in managing the fisheries in the Baltic Sea and there is now an issue that there is too much of certain species including Cod and therefore quotas are rising significantly.

This study trip to Norway was very special in terms of the knowledge gained, the fantastic hospitality of our hosts and the great experiences we had, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am very grateful for the opportunity.

Now back in the UK I am working hard to secure the very best Norwegian Cod and Haddock for us to use at Alfie Grimshaw’s.

Alfie Grimshaw has been voted to be one of the top 30 Fish and Chip Shops in the UK.