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.