Whole Foods Market, an operator of natural and organic food supermarkets, Tuesday said it remains on track to stop selling red-rated swordfish and bluefin tuna at its seafood counters nationwide by April 22, Earth Day.
Remaining red-rated wild-caught seafood except Atlantic cod and sole will be phased out of the company’s stores by Earth Day 2012. Atlantic cod and sole will have an extension until Earth Day 2013.
In September 2010, Whole Foods had launched an in-store color-coded sustainability rating program for wild-caught seafood. Partnering with Blue Ocean Institute and Monterey Bay Aquarium, the sustainability rating system’s green, yellow and red ratings make it simpler for shoppers to make informed choices at the seafood case.
According to the company, green or “best choice†ratings indicate that a species is relatively abundant and is caught in environmentally-friendly ways. While yellow or “good alternative†ratings mean that some concerns exist with the species’ status or catch methods, red or “avoid†ratings mean that the species is currently suffering from overfishing, or its fishing methods harm other marine life or habitats.
Whole Foods’ initiative expands upon the sustainable seafood program it has had with the Marine Stewardship Council or MSC since 1999, and the ratings apply only to non-MSC-certified fish.
