Préservons les ressources halieutiques

Protecting marine resources

What do blue fin tuna, siki (a deep-sea shark), emperors and grenadiers have in common? These fish have dangerously diminishing world stocks and they are not used in Elior restaurants.
Since 2005, the protection of marine resources has been at the heart of the Group's purchasing policy. This summer, the Food Quality and Safety Department took a further step by publishing a booklet for Elior restaurant managers. Its purpose is to help managers understand the issues and choose appropriate products to offer their guests.
Séverine Heyman, a Product Engineer, supervised the production of the booklet with the help of an industry specialist, the coordinator from Responsible Fishing Alliance* (RFA). “Collecting the necessary data hasn’t been easy,” she explains. “The fishing industry is not very transparent. It's difficult to get information about stocks because the focus is on catching and not on fish farming.”

Black, orange and green marine products
To make the issue clear, marine products have been classed into three categories.
- The “black list” are forbidden species that are no longer used by the Group’s Purchasing Department.
- The orange category lists species identified as “complex” (cod, black sea bream, wild turbot, pike perch, monkfish, etc.) For these fish, there are additional criteria, such as the fishing location, that determine whether the product should be avoided.
- The green category contains species “to be prioritised” (trout, pollock, sea bass, mackerel, oysters, etc.)
The managers are encouraged to offer products in the green category as a priority.

To date, 12,000 copies of the guide have been produced and distributed to Elior restaurant managers in France. Discussions are ongoing to carry out the same measure in the other European countries in which Elior is present.

* Responsible Fishing Alliance is an action group that brings together different players in the fishing industry, from all stages of production (fishers’ unions, importers, distributors, consumer-linked associations).

Atlantic blue fin tuna: victim of illegal fishing
- 29,500 tonnes/year = fixed quota in 2007**
- 50,000 tonnes/year = quantity of blue fin tuna actually caught**
** ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas)