More must be done to boost consumption in alignment with seafood consumption amounts recommended in t
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioned the study to help provide it with the most up-to-date information on seafood and child development. The report found there is not enough evidence to increase the DGA's recommended seafood consumption amounts. However, the report confirmed U.S. children and women of childbearing age are not eating enough seafood recommended further development of strategies to support increasing consumption of seafood by children and those who might become or are pregnant or breastfeeding.
Though U.S. per capita seafood consumption has risen steadily since the 1920s, the report found consumption patterns have not changed significantly since 2007, the last time the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) examined the issue.
"Strategies are needed to support increasing seafood consumption toward meeting DGA recommendations and overcoming barriers to seafood consumption," the FDA said in a press release responding to the report's publication.
NASEM said more research is necessary to determine the extent to which women of childbearing age are aware of DGA recommendations about seafood consumption. And it said the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) should reevaluate its federal nutrition programs – particularly meals in the nation’s schools – to support greater inclusion of seafood.
“Available data indicate that overall, school meals make a negligible contribution to seafood intake among most school-aged children,” the report said.
National Fisheries Institute Media and Communications Manager Kayla Bennett said the NASEM report emphasizes the need to spread awareness of the benefits of eating more seafood.
“[The report] is a significant one that clearly highlights the amount of fish women and children eat falls well below the DGA recommendations,” Bennett told SeafoodSource. “This is a clarion call for the nutrition community to recognize the fundamental health impacts eating more seafood can have.”
For women in particular, eating seafood significantly reduce birth risks and improves the health of both mother and child, according to Tom Brenna, chair of Seafood Nutrition Partnership’s Scientific Nutrition Advisory Council.
“The abundant scientific evidence is strong that expectant moms should eat more seafood to support baby brain development. Moms who eat seafood while pregnant have babies with higher IQs,” Brenna told SeafoodSource. “We applaud the FDA for recognizing that moms and kids fall woefully low in seafood consumption compared to the DGA.”
Under the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, the federal government has pushed to increase seafood consumption in schools and encourage American women to eat more seafood. In a rule published in April 2024, the USDA said it will allow schools to have greater flexibility with menu planning, giving them an enhanced ability to purchase local seafood.
Additionally, the USDA’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program recently updated its rules to include more seafood. The program, which provides nutritious foods to more than 6 million women, infants, and children who are at risk of not getting enough nutritious food, will add 6 ounces of canned fish to food packages for all children up to 4 years of age, which is up from the previous rule of 5 ounces for children between 2 and 4 years old. The USDA is also now accepting canned light tuna and chub mackerel in addition to salmon, sardines, and Atlantic mackerel.
While report found there is not enough evidence to assess the impact of exposure to contaminants from seafood other than mercury, it called for additional research to “quantify the risk of chronic exposure to less-studied contaminants in seafood and track levels of these contaminants geographically and over time.”
NASEM said there should be a special focus on populations at high risk of exposure, such as Indigenous and Native Peoples, as well as subsistence and sport fishers who eat seafood often.
