Fact Sheets: Labeling

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) was established in 19961 as an eco- labeling and certification program with the purpose of letting consumers know which fisheries are considered “sustainable” based on a set of criteria. It was co-founded by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), an international conservation organization, and Unilever, a multinational corporation that was once one of the largest seafood manufacturers in the world.

Choosing the best fish to eat can be complicated. In many cases, the more you know, the more questions arise: Is this wild or farmed? Local or imported? Produced in an environmentally responsible way? High in mercury? Tainted with antibiotics and chemicals?

In light of these questions, there is a demand for straightforward guidance on seafood. To address the sustainability questions surrounding fish, a number of certification programs have developed sets of standards and labels to evaluate and then market “environmentally friendly” or “sustainably produced” fish. But what do these labels really mean? We examined various seafood certification programs and unfortunately, these labels do not always represent what you might expect.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has estimated that over 40 percent of large dairy operations in the United States inject their cows with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), a synthetic hormone that induces cows to produce more milk. The use of rBGH remains controversial and was not approved in Canada, Japan or the European Union because of negative effects on animal health. There are also concerns that the use of rBGH may be linked to cancer in humans.