More schools serving MSC fish
ONE in six primary schools in England are now serving up fish which has come from sustainable sources, a report from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has revealed.
Seafood school dinners ranging from pollack and mushy pea fish fingers to tortilla nacho fish fillets or tempura battered salmon and sweet potato fishcakes are on the menu at 2,874 primary schools which are now certified as providing sustainable fish.
Some 572 schools, of which 458 are primaries, have become MSC certified in the past year, an 18 per cent increase which the council puts down to new school food standards which came into force in January.
The standards, part of the School Food Plan, require schools to serve oily fish, such as salmon or mackerel, every three weeks and recommend sourcing fish certified as sustainable by the MSC.
There are now 2,874 primary schools which are certified as serving sustainable fish, or 17 per cent, and a total of 3,741 schools across all ages are certified.
The MSC’s report for 2015 revealed the south-east, which had lagged behind last year, has improved significantly, with 209 schools becoming certified under the council’s scheme.
The Midlands, which had already been doing well, added another 164 certified schools, while the south-west which had no certified schools until late 2014 despite having three MSC sustainable fisheries, now has 47 signed-up schools.
More than 3,000 schools have joined the council’s ‘Kids and Fish’ programme which also teaches children about the marine environment and fisheries.