FAD Free: Do Consumers Have A Clue?
For consumers, sustainability is becoming increasingly important and a range of different logos are being put on tuna cans in order to show that the fish inside has been caught in an ethical and responsible way. But these claims can often be more confusing than helpful, which could be the case with “FAD-free”.
Mentioning on the product which fishing method has been used is one way of informing shoppers that the tuna they are buying is responsibly caught, and pole and line logos are for instance found on a number of tuna cans in Europe. This is a fishing method that is relatively easy to understand for consumers, with a straight-forward and self-explanatory message.
FAD-free is however another fishing method claim which is less well known to the public and that can be puzzling, making it harder for consumers when trying to decide if the can of tuna they buy is caught in a responsible way or not.
The term, which indicates that the tuna within a can has been fished without the use of a Fish Aggregating Device (FAD), may be used on products as a defense against strong criticism from NGOs, such as Greenpeace, which has intensely campaigned against FAD use and demanded to end the practice, described as harmful.
The situation can be compared to the existence of dolphin safe symbols, which have been used consistently by both brands and private labels in order to distance themselves from the negative publicity given to the tuna industry in relation to harming dolphins. Both FAD-free and dolphin safe, without a solid certification system, can be described as possibly giving consumers a false pretense of sustainability towards the entire ecosystem.
In Germany especially, the FAD-free claim dominates the private label range of canned tuna in supermarkets. In many instances, products with these claims do not come with an MSC label and therefore rely solely on the FAD-free message to communicate that the tuna is fished responsibly.
Even though FAD-free is a well-known term in the tuna industry, it is almost impossible to understand for the regular seafood customer, as it also means a number of other non-fish related things. A consumer who is conscious about the choices they make while doing their grocery shopping, might be more confused than ensured when picking up a tuna can with a FAD-free logo on it.
When asking regular consumers, who do not have extensive knowledge about tuna or fishing methods, what they think when they hear the word “fad”, tuna-related terminology is far from being found amongst any of their answers.
Some of the replies Atuna got when questioning the public on what the word fad meant to them were: “Does it have something to do with fashion?”; “It only makes me think of fad diets.” And “Does it have anything to do with poison or phosphor?”
And Google seems to be on the same track.
When googling the word “fad”, two Oxford Dictionary explanations come up, the first one is an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, especially one that is short-lived; a craze. And, the second one is an arbitrary like or dislike.
To get the exact search result of Fish Aggregating Device and FAD’s meaning, when it comes to fishing, one has to search for the term “FAD-Free”.
@AtunaNews’ Twitter followers seem to have the same impression. Answering a poll on Atuna’s Twitter account, 87 percent of voters answered “no” to the statement: “Do you think the average consumer knows what “FAD-Free” means?”
The term FAD-free can be meaningless to people who have English as their first language, but can be even more confusing when used in markets such as Germany and Belgium. In these markets the English words FAD-free are in some cases displayed on the front of the can. However, the translation is written in small print on the back of the can, which could create further misunderstanding for the consumer.
Additionally, there is no regulation in the EU that decides whether or not a company can put a FAD-free claim on a tuna product, and FAD-free without third party verification is considered self-certification, as there is often no strict chain of custody involved.
The practice has also been described by fishing industry body Europêche, which represents over 80,000 fishermen in Europe, as being misleading to the consumer, as the FAD-free claim has in some instances been found on tuna that has indeed been fished using FADs.
So, if consumers are actually clueless to the meaning of the FAD-free logo, is there a point in putting it on the can?
Only some of the FAD-free claims are actually visible via a logo on the front of the can in clear view of the shopper; however many are only noticed in small print on the back of the label. This can be seen as a way for supermarkets’ private labels to fulfill their own sustainability commitments, and protect themselves against negative rates from organizations such as Greenpeace, instead of using the claim to inform or attract consumers.