Sainsbury‘s has been crowned the world‘s leading supermarket for selling sustainable seafood by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).
The grocer was found to have the most sustainable products of any supermarket in the world, according to the MSC‘s annual supermarket league table.
If the council judges a product to be of a sufficiently sustainable standard, it is imprinted with a blue MSC “ecolabel”.
Over 300 fisheries in 30 countries have been awarded this label, but Sainsbury‘s was found to stock 225 ecolabel items, compared with just a handful at Big 4 rivals Morrisons and Asda.
Tesco has seen the biggest change, rising seven places in the league table to third place since 2016, just behind Waitrose.
Meanwhile, M&S slid from third to fifth.
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The table shows that the top five supermarkets have all improved in the last year with Waitrose, Aldi and Lidl all boasting two thirds of their fish ranges as MSC-approved.
“Most of us don‘t have the time to read up on sustainable sourcing and we shouldn‘t have to,” MSC programme director Toby Middleton said.
“The MSC label means the ‘science bit‘ has been done for you. Sainsbury‘s, Waitrose, Tesco, Lidl and Aldi are offering their customers clear labelling and the chance to make a difference, helping to protect fish stocks.
“In contrast, at the bottom of the league there simply isn‘t the independent information you need to help you choose, and those shoppers are missing out.
“This growth in labelling is great news for the majority of British shoppers. Two-thirds of British supermarkets are making a real investment in the future of their seafood.
“If you‘re buying MSC-labelled fish or seafood in one of these top-five supermarkets, you‘re helping to make a positive difference to the world‘s oceans.”
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