Acronym WHITEFISH
Category
Fisheries
Title Automated and differentiated calculation of sustainability for cod and haddock products Programme FP7
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
FP7 - Research for SME Associations / Groupings
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
SME – Research for the benefit of SMEs
Specific Programme (FP7)
Capacities
Funding source European Coordinator Petter Olsen Coordinator email petter.olsen@nofima.no
Coordinator institution
NOFIMA - Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research (Norway)
Institutions involved
NA - Atlantic Fresh Ltd (United Kingdom) ,
NA - Federation of Icelandic Fish Processing Plants (Iceland) ,
LÍÚ - Federation of Icelandic Fishing Vessel Owners (Iceland) ,
NA - Feldts Fisk & Skaldjur AB (Sweden) ,
NA - Grimsby Fish Merchants Association Ltd (United Kingdom) ,
NA - Hermes AS (Norway) ,
KRAV - KRAV ekonomisk förening (Sweden) ,
MATIS - Matis Ltd (Iceland) ,
NA - Norwegian Public Limited Liability Companies Act (Norway) ,
SIK - Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology (Sweden) ,
NA - Sæmark-sjávarafurðir ehf (Iceland) ,
WUR - Wageningen University and Research (Netherlands) ,
Start year 2012 End year 2014 Funding (€) € 2,894,852 Website https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/286141 Summary The European whitefish catch and processing industry is dominated by SMEs, and it is currently facing several challenges. Worldwide many stocks have collapsed, and environmental organizations warn against consuming captured whitefish. Strict regulations with respect to documentation and traceability have been imposed on the European captured fish industry in the last few years, and fulfilling these generates significant additional cost. While some cod/haddock stocks, particularly in the north-east Atlantic, are still healthy and sustainable there is a problem for these species when they get to the market. This is due to competition from cheap farmed whitefish species, in particular pangasius and tilapia imported from Asia/Africa. The goal of the WHITEFISH project is to strengthen the competitiveness of the European cod/haddock industry by documenting the desirable characteristics of whitefish caught in the north-east Atlantic, in particular relating to sustainability (stock, environmental, economic and social). The specific objective of the project is to develop and validate an objective and transparent method to document the sustainability impact of captured fish products. The method will be based on Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), and it will calculate sustainability impact on production batch level as opposed to generic product type level which is current practice. This will enable differentiated calculation of environmental impact, so that products that look identical may be shown to have different properties, for instance related to food miles or CO2 emissions. The method will utilize existing recordings in the company traceability systems, so that food businesses may perform their own calculations of sustainability without needing to involve external experts. The method will be developed, piloted and tested in this project, SMEs and SME Associations will be trained in the use of it, and it will be published and distributed as a European good practice standard.
Keywords
Traceability;
Cod;
Haddock;
Fish;
Fishing industry;
Whitefish;
Economy;
Environmental impact;
Value chain;
Life cycle;
Sustainability;
Marine Region
41
Norwegian Sea (27.IIa)
1
Marine Region Map
