A part-time supermarket employee is working behind the seafood counter when an inquisitive customer asks, “Isn’t farmed salmon loaded with PCBs?”
Eager to dispel a common misperception, the worker immediately replies, “PCBs are found in all foods, and levels in farmed salmon are far, far below the safe consumption level set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Seafood represents less than 10 percent of the PCBs in the average American diet. Farmed salmon is perfectly safe to eat.”
Sound familiar? The question should be, but the answer shouldn’t.
A lack of consumer knowledge — and finding the time and resources to properly train and educate seafood counter staff — is one of the biggest challenges facing U.S. retailers when it comes to seafood, especially in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster and the overwhelming amount of media coverage it received.
In fact, more than half (53 percent) of the retailers polled by SeaFood Business magazine for its biennial retail survey (the results of which will be published in the October issue) cited “consumer lack of knowledge” among the biggest challenges they face this year, compared to only 40 percent of retailers in 2008. This year, “consumer lack of knowledge” outranked all other challenges, including “rising wholesale prices” and “consumer price resistance,” even during an economic downturn.
Do consumers actually know less about seafood than they did just two years ago? I doubt it, but there’s no question that the amount of seafood-related information put out by the mainstream media and the environmental camp is on the increase.
Take the aforementioned scenario. It’s fictionalized, but it’s safe to assume the question resurfaced at supermarket seafood counters nationwide this weekend when a USA Today columnist essentially reran Food & Water Watch’s recently released “Dirty Dozen” seafood list, in which the group claims farmed salmon is a health risk due to PCBs and other contaminants.
It’s also safe to assume that no part-time supermarket employee would give such a detailed answer to an open-ended question.
Time-strapped journalists and agenda-driven NGOs are increasingly feeding consumers incomplete or inaccurate nuggets of information regarding the safety of seafood, whether it’s about the oil spill, methylmercury or PCBs. With school back in session after the summer break and store traffic calming down, now’s an ideal time for retailers to get serious about training and educating their seafood counter staff. Their seafood sales depend on it.
Are misinformed consumers one of the biggest challenges you face as a seafood retailer? If so, please e-mail me at [email protected] and tell me what you’re doing about it.
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