Caught out – ranking supermarkets aquaculture supply chains

Together with the Changing Markets Foundation we have ranked the top 10 UK supermarkets on their efforts to tackle the use of wild fish in their aquaculture supply chains. The report shows that UK supermarkets are failing in their responsibility to protect our oceans, as seven out of the ten supermarkets received less than 30% on the fish feed sustainability scorecard, with ALDI finishing bottom of the list on 12%, Waitrose receiving just 22% and only Tesco achieving a score over 50%.

The report also found that UK shoppers indirectly and unknowingly consumed 177,000 tonnes of wild fish in 2019 by eating the top six farmed fish species including salmon and prawns, which are fed on fishmeal and fish oil. That equates to a ‘hidden’ 172g of wild fish consumed for every 100g of farmed fish eaten, most all of which could have been eaten directly by people.

This report ranks the top ten UK retailers against a set of criteria designed to assess how effectively they are addressing the ocean sustainability implications of the farmed seafood they sell. We ranked the retailers as follows: