EU Canned Tuna Consumers: Shopping Blindfolded?

Market research shows a very clear trend of consumers becoming more interested in the story behind what they eat, making “mindful choices” when it comes to buying food products; a trend that can be exploited by the tuna industry.

While there is still a large number of shoppers that are not concerned about the sustainability of what they eat, there is a growing group of consumers that is, and their sentiment is echoed by a vocal group of environmental NGOs.

NGOs stress that shoppers are looking for the information to support their morally-driven purchasing decisions when in the supermarket, in order to make well-informed choices.

However, while an increasing segment of consumers want to know more about what they eat, some players in the tuna industry are moving in the opposite direction, by limiting the amount of information they display to consumers on product packaging.

In the EU this trend is being facilitated by the law. While fresh and frozen tuna products must note an extensive list of sourcing information for the shopper to see, the rules in place for canned tuna are far more relaxed.

This puts into question the usefulness of a range of apps launched by NGOs such as WWF, ranking tuna stocks and the way they are caught with a traffic light color scoring system. They urge shoppers to check the sustainability status of the tuna they are buying, but in some instances the information necessary for their use is not available.

A trend of less transparency can always be concerning, but most especially at a time when customers are displaying a stronger thirst for sustainability and responsible-sourcing information.

For consumers, a more general source of knowledge on tuna is mainstream media, which focuses heavily on bluefin tuna when talking of “depleting stocks”. Uninformed shoppers could therefore steer away from canned tuna as a whole if they are not aware that it contains other tuna species than the threatened bluefin.

As well as the type of tuna, the catching area and catching method are strong examples of information that conscious consumers need to know in order to make an informed and sustainable decision when buying canned tuna. The FAD discussion for instance is one tuna industry issue that certain consumers are gaining knowledge of, and those that are concerned will want to know how their fish was caught.

In the EU, the largest regional market for canned tuna globally, recent market research by the European Commission DG MARE shows that while price still tends to have the highest significance within buying decisions, sustainability is increasingly playing a more important role. Across the market, 15 percent of respondents said that concerns over seafood sustainability stop them from buying and eating more fish products, including tuna.

There are many rules in place in the EU for labelling information when it comes to tuna products that are unprocessed, including fresh and frozen.

The mandatory details for these products is as follows:

• Commercial and scientific name of the fish.
• The production method; for example whether the fish is wild caught or farmed.
• The catching areas for wild caught.
• The catching method; seines, trawls, gillnets and similar nets, surrounding nets and lift nets, hooks and lines, dredges, or pots and traps.
• If the product has been defrosted the label must state this.
• Best before date/use by date.
• Allergens.

For those fresh or frozen tuna products that are pre-packaged, even more information is required, including:

• List of ingredients.
• Quantity of ingredients.
• Net weight of the product.
• Conditions for storage and use.
• Name and address of the food operator.
• Country of origin.
• Date of freezing.
• Added water.

The name of the country, the approval number of the establishment where production takes place.

While the list is already quite substantial, there is also extra voluntary details that can be added to fresh and frozen tuna products. EU regulations leave these down to producer discretion.

The voluntary info includes: date of landing; port of landing; more details on fishing gear; the flag state of the catching vessel; environmental, ethical and social information; production techniques; and nutritional content.

However for processed tuna products – canned, pouched and value added – a lot less detail needs to be placed on the packaging according to EU law. The processor, brand or retailer instead has the freedom itself to choose what it wants to include when it comes to most criteria.

Consumers of canned tuna can therefore be left with far less information to see on the packaging. The EU pocket guide on fish labelling notes that “there are specific marketing standards” for canned tuna products, which can be found in separate EU regulations.

It was confirmed to Atuna by a DG Mare representative that “prepared tuna (e.g. canned tuna or tuna salads) are excluded from our labelling requirements so there is no obligation for these products to carry information on the catch area, species or fishing gear.”

She added that “the only requirements established by law are that the term “tuna” can only be used for some species”:

1. Species of the genus Thunnus
(a) Albacore or longfinned tuna (Thunnus alalunga)
(b) Yellowfin tuna (Thunnus (neothunnus) albacares)
(c) Bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus)
(d) Bigeye tuna (Thunnus (parathunnus) obesus)
(e) Other species of the genus Thunnus.

2. Skipjack or stripe-bellied tuna
(Euthynnus (Katsuwonus) pelamis)

This means that any of these species can be packed inside a tuna can – alone or mixed with others – and can be labelled simply as “tuna”.

This is despite the fact that all have a different taste, color and texture. Take wine for example, and imagine that every bottle was labelled simply “wine” with no differentiation between the type of grape, or the country it was grown.

While an increased number of consumers seek more transparency and more of a story behind their food, some tuna labels are going firmly against this. Several brands/private label canned tuna products are showing less and less information on the products they market.

Others have tried to tap into the rising acknowledgement of sustainability issues however, sourcing MSC certified tuna and displaying the blue-tick label to communicate this to consumers that care. But even MSC, considered the highest standard for sustainability in the tuna industry, does not demand that certified products carry information on species, catching method or on where the tuna was caught.

An EU representative explained that, “whenever information on the catch area, species and fishing gear is placed on the label of these products, this is done on a voluntary basis, but is not made compulsory by law.”

So why are the rules for fresh and frozen tuna so different to processed tuna references?

Enrico Brivio, an EU Commission spokesperson, told Atuna that prepared/preserved products involve more steps in the chain between the moment of production and their sale to the final consumer.

“Having on these processed products the same level of information as on unprocessed products would have caused administrative burden for companies with little added value for consumers,” he said.

However, he does note that the Commission has acknowledged the need for consumers to make informed choices, and in its original proposal to revise the existing rules on labelling of fishery products, it proposed that three types of information would be included on preserved and prepared tuna labelling:

The commercial designation of the species (i.e. what fish is used),

The production method (i.e. if the fish used is wild caught or farmed), and

The area where the raw material used was caught or farmed.

Brivio states however that this proposal from the Commission was rejected at the moment of adopting the new rules by the legislatures. In particular, the European Parliament considered that “fishery and aquaculture products under the headings 1604 and 1605 (which included canned tuna) are composite products where other ingredients are present in addition to the fish.”

These extra ingredients tend to be oil and brine, but can also be vegetables and sauces, when it comes to value-added references.

The EU therefore saw no reason to extend these provisions to processed tuna, in which fish may only be one of a number of ingredients, he explained. “Hence, for prepared and preserved products the provision of such information is only done on a voluntary basis.”

This extra voluntary detail is sometimes being provided by a number of major EU canned tuna brands and private label suppliers, however there is no consistency evident across EU markets, potentially leaving consumers confused or uninformed.

When extra information is actually included, it is usually in regards to a sustainability claim, with brands and private labels keen to communicate their responsible sourcing. This could beg the question, therefore, as to whether when information is vague, a product is potentially hiding details that it may not be interested in revealing to the shopper.

The leading brand in the French market, Thai Union owned Petit Navire, has a value-added product, which is curry flavored canned tuna, for example. This product is labelled as “thon”, which translated simply means “tuna”, there is no fishing method mentioned, however it is stated to be caught in the Atlantic Ocean.

Yellowfin tuna is the major tuna species sold on the French tuna market, and with stocks of this species overfished in the Indian Ocean specifically, some negative attention could have been placed on yellowfin as a whole. As well as this, consumers could be increasingly aware of FAD fishing operations that are believed to have negatively impacted this species in some ocean regions.

If a brand or private label is therefore offering a yellowfin tuna product caught using FADs, and is not required by law to communicate this to the consumer, it will likely choose not to.

Another reason why brands may not choose to reveal a specific species to a customer is that it leaves them with the ability to use a range of different tunas for the same product, depending on availability and cost at a specific time. With yellowfin being the favored tuna species when it comes to the French market, it could therefore indicate that the TU-owned Petit Navire product is in fact lower value skipjack.

But there are instances when tuna products do display more. A Tesco private label canned tuna product on the UK market for example, goes further when giving info to potential consumers. It is noted that the tuna used is skipjack, and it was caught in the Atlantic Ocean by pole and line. In this case, the pole and line method used, regarded by several NGOs as a more sustainable technique, becomes the unique selling point of the product.

The UK private label tuna market is dominated by pole and line skipjack catch and this has been partly driven by a Greenpeace push, with the NGO regarding it as the most sustainable catching method. If a brand or retailer is offering pole and line product it will therefore want to communicate that, not only to satisfy the NGOs, but to get this message to the consumer. The term pole and line has been described as having a very clear meaning, even for a shopper that has no knowledge about the tuna industry.

An Aldi private label tuna product, marketed in the Netherlands, goes even further than many others, as it loads the can with extra details, despite this not being required by law.

The can includes the scientific name of the species, Katsuwonus pelamis (skipjack), noting also that it is caught by purse seine in FAO zone 71, and it was processed in Lae, PNG.

With skipjack stocks in the Western Central Pacific, where this fish was caught, rated currently as green in status, Aldi is keen to communicate this to shoppers, and give them the information that this was harvested from a healthy stock. It is not noted however if this was caught with or without FADs, a detail that a sustainably-minded consumer may want to know.

On the Austrian market, and under retailer Spar’s private label, there is an MSC certified tuna product that gives extensive information to the consumer. It is not only noted that the canned species is skipjack, including its scientific name, but that it was also caught in FAO zone 71, and fished by purse seiners setting on free-swimming schools of tuna.

An MSC certification is displayed on the product, as well as the Pacifical co-brand logo, and also notes that the fish is sourced from the PNA purse seine fishery. It explains extensively about the region and the tuna fishing operations within. Likewise, the catching method itself is detailed on the packaging, and an image of skipjack tuna is included.

In addition to this, a QR code is provided on an extra cardboard sleeve, allowing consumers to trace their skipjack tuna back to the vessel that caught it. While the processor of this product chooses to print a number of details on the can, others give a QR code or website as the only source of detail. They argue that the small portion of tuna consumers that may be interested in sustainability can go online to source the information they require.

Other MSC certified products on the EU market have also been identified to give considerably more information to the consumer than what is legally required.

On an MSC pole and line canned tuna product, under UK retailer Waitrose’s private label range, not only the certification and fishing method are mentioned, but also that the product is packed with skipjack tuna.

It is also explained that this product, “caught in the Indian Ocean”, and “produced in Thailand”, comes from a fishery that has been independently certified to the MSC’s standard for a well-managed and sustainable fishery. The MSC website is additionally noted.

But some offering MSC products, as they are not obliged to print this extensive detail on their packaging, leave their information rather vague. A Princes canned tuna in water reference on the Dutch market, carrying the MSC and Pacifical logos, notes only that the can is packed with “tuna (fish)”. There is indication of the processing location – Mauritius – but no insight into where the tuna was caught, aside from the Pacifical stamp.

While it is positive to see that some products, brands and retailers are going above and beyond EU legal requirements in order to more extensively inform their consumers, there are clearly many products that are still leaving customers with little information to read on the can. Although the number of conscious consumers is rising, the brands appear slower to react, and could miss out on exploiting this important market trend.

Without all information regarding species, catching method and catching area, a consumer will not be informed enough to make a sustainable choice, even when they want to.

But “enabling consumers to make an informed choice is of great importance to the EU,” Brivio stressed to Atuna. “For this reason, the Commission carried out last year a Eurobarometer to test the interest that consumers have in the different types of information they receive on fishery and aquaculture products, whether on processed or unprocessed products, and looking at both mandatory and voluntary information.”

The results of the opinion poll show that the interest in information, such as what fish consumers are buying and where it comes from, is more important in the case of unprocessed products, Brivio explains. “Nonetheless, for prepared and preserved products there is also an interest in this type of information and we have engaged in discussions with the sector to make it aware of consumers’ expectations.”

Brivio adds that “this type of work allows us to assess to what extent legislation responds to consumers’ expectations,” indicating that changes in the EU labelling law might be seen in the future.