The updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) have seafood companies and representative groups working to capitalize on new marketing and sales opportunities for the category.
The new guidelines feature an inverted food pyramid prominently showcasing seafood and a recommendation that Americans eat at least three servings of seafood weekly, compared to the previous recommendation of two servings.
Clackamas, Oregon, U.S.A.-based Pacific Seafood, the Wild Alaska Sole Association, and the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) are among multiple industry stakeholders planning to use the new standards to market seafood and boost overall consumption.
“I was excited to see the new DGA come out,” Pacific Seafood Vice President of Talent and Culture Bill Hueffner told SeafoodSource. “For the first time in 40-some years, what they are saying about seafood has changed. When the DGA says to eat real food and eat proteins at every meal, that is something we haven’t said in the past.”
Pacific Seafood already heavily communicates the health benefits of seafood, Hueffner said, particularly in its mission statement of “feeding the world the healthier protein on the planet,” but the firm is now planning to step up its promotional and educational efforts around the new DGA, including on its social media channels.
Another way in which Pacific can take advantage is that its salespeople can leverage the new guidelines to encourage foodservice buyers to add more seafood to their menus, Hueffner said.
“This gives us another talking point with those chefs. We can raise the reality of these new guidelines and ask whether they have thought about the potential impact [on sales],” he said.
Additionally, Hueffner said he is optimistic the new DGA will increase consumption of seafood among children, as U.S. schools are vastly underserving seafood.
“Our school systems didn’t follow two servings of seafood a week; it was more like two servings of seafood a year,” he said. “We are not conditioning the palate at a younger age when it should be developed.”
Hueffner’s optimism for schools follows promises made by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which announced after the updated guidelines were released that it would draft new guidance to regional directors of children nutrition programs, instructing them to “consider how these guidelines will be incorporated into healthy meals and snacks permanently,” USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said.
Efforts to update child nutrition programs will include rulemaking and education, Rollins said, adding that her agency will have a proposed school meals plan ready by mid-spring.
Pacific has long worked with the U.S.’s National School Lunch Program and has hosted education representatives at its facilities in order to educate stakeholders about the type of seafood dishes schools could prepare for children.
Elsewhere, the Wild Alaska Sole Association, based in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., is positioning sole, often labeled as wild Alaska flounder in the U.S., as an ideal fit for the new standards.
The new DGA emphasize naturally nutrient-dense foods as the “foundation for maintaining a healthy weight, reducing chronic disease risks, and addressing nutrient shortfalls common in U.S. diets.” Eating more lean fish like Alaska sole aligns with this approach, the association said in a release, as it delivers high-quality protein alongside essential nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B-12, selenium, potassium, and phosphorus.
”While food trends are always changing, the research is consistent that fresh, wild seafood provides critical nutrients like omega-3s that are hard to replace with other foods," Wild Alaska Sole Association Executive Director Pat Shanahan said.
On a national scale, the new guidelines are “significant on a number of levels,” NFI Vice President of External Affairs and Councils Brandon Phillips said, explaining they provide a “protein-positive, science-based posture with substantial seafood recommendations.”
“They’re not obtuse or vague about the power of whole foods and the importance of omega-3s,” he said. "This will be impactful for seafood.”
According to Phillips, the recommendations not only have the ability to encourage consumers to eat more seafood in the short term, but bigger impacts will also likely be seen over the long term via professional medical and nutrition messaging.
“When doctors and dietitians redouble their focus on encouraging seafood consumption for health and public health impacts, there can be a five-year impact. That lasts far longer than the five months or even five days that is often the half-life of many resolutions,” he said.
NFI’s registered dietitians will be spreading the word to nutrition and medical professionals in person and across several other platforms, as well as talking with policymakers to coordinate seafood outreach and education efforts, Phillips said.
