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Responsible Seafood

As one of the country’s largest grocers, Albertsons Companies recognizes its responsibility to protect our natural resources. Protecting our oceans is critical for maintaining the availability of seafood for future generations and the health of our planet.

We are committed to providing our customers with high-quality and traceable seafood from environmentally and socially responsible sources. Through our Responsible Seafood Program, we are working to improve transparency within our seafood supply chain; to protect the oceans; and to provide fair and equitable treatment for the people who depend on them for their livelihoods.

Our Responsible Seafood Program includes our comprehensive Responsible Seafood Policy and Commitment which covers fresh and frozen seafood, sushi and shelf-stable (i.e. canned) tuna. We created the Responsible Choice™ logo to help our customers identify our fresh and frozen seafood and shelf-stable tuna offerings that meet our policy.

Responsible Choice: It’s not just a logo, it’s our commitment.

Responsible Choice Logo

The Responsible Choice logo helps customers identify fresh & frozen seafood and shelf-stable tuna products that are verified as meeting our Responsible Seafood Policy. These products contain seafood that is third-party audited to ensure it has been raised or caught in ways that help safeguard future supplies and keep ecosystems thriving.

100% of the seafood in our Waterfront BISTRO® and Open Nature® brands now meets our Responsible Seafood Policy and will soon display the Responsible Choice logo. These brands include more than 100 unique items and are carried throughout our nearly 2,300 stores. Check out these great recipes that feature some of our Responsible Choice products.

Our Responsible Seafood Policy

Albertsons Companies’ Responsible Seafood Policy outlines the sustainability standards that our fresh & frozen seafood, sushi, and shelf-stable tuna products must meet.

Our Policy leverages well-established ratings and certifications, as well as fisheries or farms making measurable and time-bound improvements, often called Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs). FIPs bring multiple stakeholders together to address management and environmental challenges in a fishery, and by sourcing from FIPs we are supporting groups actively working to make these improvements.

To learn more about our sourcing policies, see our Responsible Seafood Policy and Commitments and our FIPs sourcing requirements.

Meeting our Commitments

Being transparent with our customers about the progress were making towards our Commitments is a key component of our Responsible Seafood Program. Click the down arrow to the right of each category below to learn about our Responsible Seafood Commitments and see our Due Diligence Plan for details on recent progress.

Fresh & Frozen Seafood Sushi Shelf-Stable Tuna Traceability Social Responsibility Policy Engagement

Fresh & Frozen Seafood

By year-end 2022, 100% of our top 20 wild-caught and farm-raised fresh and our private label frozen seafood will be sourced in compliance with our Responsible Seafood Policy.

Today, Customers can find over 600 wild and farmed seafood products that meet our Responsible Seafood Policy at our fish counters across the country.

100% of the seafood in our Waterfront BISTRO® and Open Nature® brands achieved meeting our Responsible Seafood Policy in 2019. These brands include over 100 unique seafood products and include a number of our Top 20 species, such as tuna, salmon, and shrimp.

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Sushi

We achieved our sushi commitment 18 months early, meaning that 100% of our top five wild caught and farmed-raised seafood categories used in our prepared sushi are sourced in compliance with our Responsible Seafood Policy.

Our sushi commitment includes the following seafood categories:

  • Eel
  • Salmon
  • Shrimp
  • Surimi
  • Tuna

Details on the work we do with sushi suppliers on social responsibility and traceability can be found in our Due Diligence Plan.

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Shelf-Stable Tuna

We continually work to improve the responsibility of our shelf-stable tuna products by sourcing from tuna fisheries in compliance with our Shelf-Stable Tuna Policy.

All Open Nature shelf-stable tuna products meet our Responsible Seafood policy and qualifies for our Responsible Choice logo.

We use Trace Register’s TR5 Platform, which is GDST compliant, to collect data about our Own Brands shelf-stable products. This platform increases our ability to mitigate illegal, unreported and unregulated shelf-stable tuna from entering our supply chain.

Through Trace Register, we also collect specific product information to determine if at-sea transshipment is occurring in our tuna supply chain. We continue working with our suppliers to mitigate potential labor risks and increase transparency of our supply chains.

Learn more about progress toward our commitment in our Due Diligence Plan.

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Traceability

We will continue to work toward industry best practices in traceability, including standardized data collection, verification practices, and robust traceability systems for our seafood products and supply chains.

Albertsons Companies is the largest retailer in the United States to partner with Trace Register, a third party electronic traceability provider. Through Trace Register, we are now collecting product information from our seafood suppliers on a per shipment basis, giving us assurance that our products are meeting the high standards of our Responsible Seafood Program.

We have made progress on our traceability commitments by continuing to work through our Due Diligence Plan for traceability and counter-IUU (illegal, unreported, and unregulated) fishing within our seafood supply chain, including engaging suppliers and conducting studies within our supply chains.

Review our Due Diligence Plan and the Social Responsibility section below to learn more.

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Social Responsibility

We will continue collaborative efforts with suppliers and other organizations to work toward implementing industry best practices for reducing human tracking and forced labor risks in seafood supply chains.

We are making progress on our Traceability and Social Responsibility Commitments by continuing to work through our Due Diligence Plan for traceability, counter-IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing, and social responsibility within our seafood supply chain. Details and examples of how we engage our Fresh & Frozen, Sushi, and Shelf-Stable Tuna vendor partners on social responsibility can be found in our Due Diligence Plan.

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Policy Engagement

At Albertsons Companies, we realize that enacting meaningful change to protect our oceans and wellbeing of those whose livelihoods depend on seafood production, requires collaborating with other stakeholders.

We regularly take action to help address improving human rights in international seafood supply chain, including sending letters addressing industry issues to foreign and domestic government agencies, industry groups, and others. For details of specific engagements please see our Due Diligence Plan.

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fishwise

A Partnership that Makes a Difference

The seafood industry is operationally complex with challenges that cannot be overcome by one retail company alone. To accomplish our goals and commitments, we partnered with FishWise, a nonprofit sustainable seafood consultancy. FishWise works with us to gather information from our vendors, providing third-party verification that our seafood products meet our policy. Together, we’re leading the way in creating a more sustainable and ethical seafood industry.