Healthfulness driving January seafood sales

It’s January, and Americans are seeking healthier foods as part of their New Year’s resolutions. So retailers and seafood-marketing organizations nationwide are jumping on board by promoting seafood’s healthful benefits.

“During January, we do our best to promote fresh fillets, such as cod, haddock, salmon, pollock and flounder. We advertise our Grade A items, as well as items that are heart healthy, along with [those that have] our high NuVal scores. Our top [NuVal] items are salmon, tilapia and pollock, to name a few,” said Krysten Nunes, seafood administrative assistant for Springfield, Mass.-based Big Y Foods.

Big Y’s NuVal nutritional scoring system lists the nutritional value (on a scale of 1 to 100) for fresh and dry grocery products. Big Y bases the scores on more than 30 factors, including proteins, fats, carbohydrates, sugar and sodium.

“Fish is a high quality protein source, so its NuVal scores tend to range from the 30s to the high 80s,” said Carrie Taylor, R.D., L.D.N., the lead registered dietitian for Big Y’s Living Well Eating Smart program.

From 6 January through 12 January, Big Y promoted wild-caught, Grade A pollock loins for USD 5.98 a pound, “New England-style” haddock fillets encrusted with Ritz crackers for USD 7.98 a pound and Atlantic salmon fillets for USD 7.98 a pound.

Other supermarket chains across the United States are also promoting fresh fish as healthy this month. Albertsons, a division of Supervalu, is promoting fresh catfish and rockfish fillets for USD 6.99 a pound through 18 January. Ralph’s in Compton, Calif., is advertising Alaska cod fillets for USD 7.99 a pound and 6-ounce farmed salmon portions for USD 4.50 each through 18 January.

Meanwhile, seafood-marketing organizations are getting in on the act. The Mussel Industry Council of North America recently distributed recipes and information on mussels’ healthful benefits to consumers.

Farmed blue mussels are low in saturated fat and “an excellent source” of vitamins and minerals such as phosphorus, zinc, manganese, folate, niacin, riboflavin and thiamine, according to a MICNA press release.

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