Taste of the sea for Coventry

SEAFISH, the industry authority on seafood, is launching a student chef led pilot education programme which aims to teach children about the variety of seafood available and how it gets from the ocean to our tables.

The initiative plans to encourage children to eat a greater variety of fish more often, as well as inspire the chefs of tomorrow.

Over the next year, 50 groups of student chefs from around the UK will go to Billingsgate Market for their own special seafood training day.

The groups of college students will then return to their communities to create their own education event with local schoolchildren.

To celebrate the launch, Seafish brought together student chefs from Henley College Coventry and Fishmonger Gary Hooper to bring tastes of the sea to Finham Primary School in Coventry, with a special seafood demonstration on the variety of seafood and hands-on cooking lessons from the student chefs.

Research unveiled by Seafish has shown that children between the ages of seven and 11 are becoming far more adventurous when it comes to fish consumption in many part of the UK. Some 40 per cent having tried crab, 33 per cent sampled squid, while one in five has eaten lobster.

Cod is still the most commonly eaten fish by kids (86.7 per cent have eaten it), followed by tuna (80 per cent), haddock (73.3) and salmon (60 per cent).

But only 24.3 per cent of seven to 11-year-olds eat the recommended minimum of two pieces of fish per week.