How do I shop responsibly for fish?

Buying fish at the grocery store is confusing with all the different label acronyms and certifications. How do I know what I’m buying is good — for my family and for the environment?

Even if you aren’t looking to serve raw fish, shopping for seafood can be a confusing process.

In general, for instance, buying locally caught or raised seafood reduces the distance it must travel to you, as well as the amount of handling, making for fresher fish. But then there are options like Hawaiian kanpachi and Idaho trout, which are responsibly raised and sent directly to local fish distributors.

We could all benefit from stores clearly labeling fish with their provenance. Recently at my local Sprouts, I stared at “wild ahi tuna” from Indonesia at $10.99 per pound. “Should I be buying fish from the other side of the planet?” I wondered. My eyes then fell on farmed coho salmon for $10.99 per pound and wild sockeye salmon for $13.99. The sockeye was brighter in color, but the coho was cheaper. Which would be better?

Wracked with frustration from the lack of labeling (I couldn’t tell which was better because I didn’t have enough information), I purchased neither. It wasn’t until later that I had the time to sit down in front of my computer and look up Sprout’s fish certification policy; the grocery chain adheres to selling certified, responsibly raised fish so I would have been fine purchasing either.

One place to start when shopping for fish is to look for certification logos from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and its sister organization, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC). These independent groups work with fisheries that follow strict standards for catching or raising fish, don’t heavily rely on fish feed with antibiotics, and treat their employees decently. The ASC conducts farm audits and monitors some of the most popular products gleaned from our waters, including shrimp and scallops.

Farmed fish has a bad reputation in this country, but the reality is that so long as you make yourself aware of ASC labels and, on occasion, check the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch’s recommendations, it’s not that hard to shop responsibly at any chain grocery store (the Seafood Watch site has a handy search option).

I tend to trust the MSC and ASC more than corporations’ own labels, because it can be hard to know what’s marketing or actual policy. Terms like “responsibly raised or farmed” can be meaningless unless they’re backed up by certification. Still, it can be worth trying to familiarize yourself with a grocery store’s seafood sourcing policies, often found on their websites. I feel comfortable buying frozen Alaskan cod from Target, for instance, because I know it has a commitment to sourcing fish labeled green or yellow by the Seafood Watch program.

For deeper guidance, Fed by Blue is a nonprofit that encourages responsible seafood consumption and has compiled a useful shopping guide for purchasing seafood at the grocery store.

If you’re looking for a Philly seafood source that also adheres to good practices and supports our surrounding communities, you may want to consider signing up for Small World Seafood, which works sort of like an a la carte CSA for seafood. The company runs pickups in Fairmount, Rittenhouse, Fitler Square, and Washington Square, with once-a-week stops on Thursday or Friday. Founder Robert Amar sends out a newsletter about what seafood the company is bringing in, then customers place orders one day prior to pick up.

Amar will handle the responsible curation for you. “I do pay attention to certifications, but generally speaking, I do so for locations and fisheries. Smaller suppliers usually will fall under those umbrellas and won’t have their own certifications since those can be super expensive to obtain. I like to meet the producers and even will travel to those places to check it out as well, to check under the hood, so to speak,” he said.

Amar likens shopping for seafood to wine — “there are regions that become known for better product,” he said.

One example, considering both the “merroir” (marine terroir) of a particular place and a reputation for high-quality, responsibly sourced product would be the Faroe Islands and the salmon raised in its cold, clean waters. “Supporting areas that need the help is important to me to help those communities,” he said.

At the end of the day the best way to shop for seafood is to buy it from stores and suppliers that are transparent about their sourcing practices or adhere to MSC and ASC regulations — labels aren’t necessarily going to cut it, and wild isn’t always better than farmed.

Have a question about what goes on behind the line in restaurant kitchens? Or how to handle food like a chef? Or where your food comes from? Hands, Please is an advice column in which Inquirer food writer Kiki Aranita puts her years of working as a chef to use answering your questions about the kitchen — in restaurants or in your own home.

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