Food Lion Rolls Out Sustainable Seafood Policy

Food Lion has introduced what it calls an “industry-leading” sustainable seafood policy covering about 1,000 fresh, frozen, canned or packaged products sold throughout the store.

“At Food Lion, we believe that we have a responsibility to protect seafood species for generations to come,” noted Karen Fernald, SVP of merchandising at Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion, a banner of Delhaize America, the U.S. division of Brussels-based Delhaize Group. “Through our policy, customers can trust that the seafood products they buy in our stores today are responsibly harvested. Our seafood products have been documented as meeting important criteria around sustainability, adding Food Lion to an elite list of grocers in the U.S. to accomplish this goal.”

Following Through

Under the new policy:

• Food Lion’s suppliers will provide full traceability back to the source fishery or seafood farm for seafood products sold.
• Wild-caught seafood will come from source fisheries employing credible, enforceable and science-based management plans that respect the amount of harvest, to ensure seafood populations will continue to be healthy in the future.
• Farm-raised seafood is certified and reviewed to ensure that production does no harm to communities, workers, the environment or human health.
• The Gulf of Maine Research Institute will confirm fisheries supplying the seafood are responsibly managed.
• Monitoring and compliance measures are implemented to ensure harvest levels are maintained within appropriate limits.

“Food Lion has been resolute in following through with its policy’s commitments, which has required a great deal of investment on their part,” said Jen Levin, sustainable seafood program manager at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, in Portland.

To mark the policy’s launch, Food Lion has donated 9,000 sustainable seafood products to local food banks.

More information about the policy and the origin of specific products is available online, as is Food Lion’s sustainability report.

Food Lion operates more than 1,100 supermarkets in 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states, employing about 57,000 associates.