Aldi is planning to launch a responsibly sourced assurance scheme for own-label fish products amid booming fish sales at the discounter, The Grocer can reveal.
It trademarked the phrase ‘Love Fish’ last week as a quality assurance certification for use on fish and fish products. A range of images accompanies the application, all featuring a heart surrounded by three fish and the phrase ‘responsibly sourced’.
“The new Love Fish trademark will appear on Aldi-branded fish products that have been responsibly sourced,” said an Aldi spokesman. “These products adhere to a range of standards including MSC and ASC certification.”
However, Aldi declined to confirm when the mark would be introduced to its packaging and in stores.
Value sales of frozen and chilled fish at Aldi increased 15.4% on last year [Kantar Worldpanel 52 w/e 16 July 2017]. The discounter was ranked second of nine retailers in the MSC’s sustainability league table released in March, with some 69% of its fish range MSC-certified, beaten only by Sainsbury’s 72%.
Key messages of the MSC certification label include guarantees that the product is sustainably sourced, accurately labelled and can be traced back to fisheries of origin.
The move follows a similar effort by Iceland, which trademarked its Sea Kind responsible sourcing label in September to coincide with the frozen specialist joining organisations including Morrisons, Birds Eye and the British Retail Consortium as a member of the Sustainable Seafood Coalition.
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