M&J Seafood, Part of the Fresh Direct Group, Commits to BAP as Part of Wider Sustainability Platform

Fresh Direct Group’s M&J Seafood — the UK’s largest seafood supplier — announced that it is to further its commitment to the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) third-party certification program by adding 18 new four-star BAP prawn items to its product range.

M&J Seafood has a strong history of seeking out responsible choices when sourcing seafood, and this announcement backs up Brakes Group’s recent signing of The Sustainable Fish City pledge.

“Sourcing four-star BAP seafood is one of the best choices that UK foodservice operators can make,” said Mike Berthet, Director of Fish and Seafood for M&J.

Four-star BAP status denotes that seafood is sourced from BAP-certified processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills. It’s the highest such achievement in the BAP program.

“This represents yet another major milestone in the number of products available from our Safely Sourced Seafood List, which now exceeds 400 items — fresh, frozen and live,” said Berthet.

“Fresh Direct and M&J are taking very decisive, proactive action for the UK foodservice sector. This is a bold move, and we applaud their leadership and vision,” added Peter Redmond, BAP VP of Market Development. “We hope this bold example is enhanced by other companies, so that we see an overall rising of the tide.”

M&J Seafood offers the largest range of fresh and frozen seafood to more than 12,000 chefs nationwide. M&J Seafood grew organically to become the UK’s largest independent seafood supplier by the 1990s and is now part of the UK’s largest “fresh intensive” foodservice distributor.

About BAP
A division of the Global Aquaculture Alliance, Best Aquaculture Practices is an international certification program based on achievable, science-based and continuously improved performance standards for the entire aquaculture supply chain—farms, hatcheries, processing plants and feed mills—that assure healthful foods produced through environmentally and socially responsible means. BAP certification is based on independent audits that evaluate compliance with the BAP standards developed by the Global Aquaculture Alliance.