Brits are eating more seafood than five years ago - but are still falling short of dietary recommendations, according to new data.
UK fresh fish and seafood volumes increased 3% for the third year in a row in 2015, the figures from Euromonitor International showed, with per capita intake up from 10.6kg in 2010 to 11.5kg in 2015.
However, the UK remains behind the global average for per capita seafood consumption, which was 13.7kg in 2015. People in Taiwan - the country with the highest per capita consumption - are eating on average 59.4kg a year in comparison.
Most Brits are still not eating enough fish and seafood to meet the recommended target of two portions of fish per week, said Simone Baroke, contributing analyst at Euromonitor.
“The message that fish ought to feature in the diet on a regular weekly basis does not seem to have sunk in to the degree one would expect, considering the number of years this message has already been in circulation,” she added.
Boosting seafood consumption by promoting its health benefits is one of three key strategic priorities outlined by the English Seafood Industry Task Force in its Seafood 2040 Strategy, published by Defra last week.
The strategy aims for seafood to be recognised as the UK’s “healthiest and most popular protein”, with shoppers eating a wider variety of species and sales of UK seafood increasing at home and abroad.
Euromonitor predicts the UK seafood market will reach 792,000 tonnes by 2020, with the popularity of fish increasing alongside growing awareness of its health benefits.
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