Sustainable Seafood

Hannaford is committed to doing our part to help ensure that seafood species are protected today and for generations to come. For us, it's simply the responsible choice.

Our seafood sourcing policy means that if a seafood product is sold at Hannaford, we have done our homework and assessed whether it was harvested in an environmentally responsible manner.

At Hannaford, you can trust that the seafood products you buy in our stores are brought to you in a way that you can feel good about. Seafood products sold in our stores must be fully traceable to the wild fishery or farm and must meet key environmental sustainability criteria.

We strive to ensure that seafood sold in our stores is harvested in a responsible manner. For us, this means that seafood products have met the strict criteria in our seafood sourcing policy. Our goal is to sell seafood from fisheries and farms that are well managed to ensure fish populations remain healthy and that fishing and farming methods have a minimal environmental and social impact.

We work closely with our suppliers to make sure we know where the seafood we sell comes from.

• Our suppliers must provide traceability back to the port of landing or the seafood farm.
• Every seafood product in the store is required to be traceable, whether it's located in the fresh, frozen or grocery sections of our stores.

Plus, we participate in the Ocean Disclosure Project. This means we have publicly disclosed the fisheries and farming countries where our Hannaford and Nature's Promise brand wild-caught seafood comes from. Visit the Ocean Disclosure Project website to see our profile and information about our fishery sources.

Hannaford's sustainable seafood policy covers a wide range of products, making it a leader among major U.S. grocery companies.

• Products in our fresh, frozen and grocery departments are fully compliant with our sourcing policy.
• The policy also applies to food products with fish as a primary ingredient, like seafood soups and chowders.

We are committed to being a leader in sourcing from local producers and suppliers. We're always seeking to improve the economic and ecologic welfare of the region's seafood industry by creating market opportunities for local products. Look for our "We Love Local" tags to find local seafood while shopping.

What "local" means when you're shopping our seafood department:

• In the service case at the seafood counter, items labeled "local" are from the Gulf of Maine region's waters, which stretch from Nova Scotia to Cape Cod. We also consider seafood from New York inshore waters to be local because we have stores in New York state.
• In the fresh and frozen side cases, where you find pre-packaged seafood items, the "local" label means that the seafood is from the U.S. or Canada.
• For any seafood item labeled "local," it must have been processed in one of the states where we have stores: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts or New York.

Hannaford is committed to helping ensure that our sustainable seafood policy is rigorous and transparent, and that customers know we are doing our homework on seafood. We use our position in the seafood industry to work with our suppliers, producers and colleagues on issues and opportunities for improvement surrounding global seafood sustainability.

We partner with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, a nonprofit marine research institution, to help us maintain the credibility and transparency of our sustainable seafood policy. Please see further below on this page to learn more about the specific criteria we use to assess whether to sell a particular seafood product.

Environmental Integrity

Ahold Delhaize USA is committed to sourcing only seafood from fisheries and farms that are well managed to ensure that fish populations remain healthy and fishing and farming methods have a minimum environmental and social impact. All seafood we sell, whether it's fresh, frozen, or canned, must meet important sustainability criteria.

Human Welfare

Ahold Delhaize USA is deeply concerned about the well-being of the men and women who contribute to bringing seafood to our stores. From harvesting to processing and distribution, we are committed to ensuring ethical recruitment and conditions of labor. This is a highly complex issue and spans many of our seafood supply chains. We are actively engaged in bringing together numerous stakeholders, NGOs, and other private sector companies to collaboratively address unsatisfactory human welfare conditions, the most egregious being slavery at sea.

We will not knowingly sell seafood from illegal, unreported, or unregulated (IUU) sources.

• All fresh, frozen and/or canned products in all departments, where seafood is the first and/or only ingredient. This includes Own Brand and National Brand products.
• Combination foods, where seafood is not the first ingredient, but where seafood is a part of the product name or where the product would be interpreted as a seafood product (e.g., lobster bisque).
• Excluded: Seaweed, alligator, frog legs, supplements (Omega 3), binders/fillers (fish gelatin).

Wild-Caught Seafood Criteria:

• Certified against a GSSI-benchmarked standard (e.g., Marine Stewardship Council); OR
• In improvement and sourced from a credible Fishery Improvement Project (FIP) or in assessment to be certified. (FIPs must be committed to publicly reporting on independent platforms like FisheryProgress.org and should demonstrate regular progress toward environmental and social responsibility. We will monitor progress through progress ratings and reported evidence of improvements. Traceability to a participating company or governmental body must be verified by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.)
• Assessed as low risk by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI). Medium risk sources must present an acceptable time-bound plan to reduce the risk. Low risk sources are managed by competent authorities and have management plans in place that incorporate a science-based approach to ensure sustainability. These management plans consist of the following tenets:
  • If stock sizes are below management target levels, whether due to natural or man-made causes, management plans are established that enable rebuilding within a specified timeframe.
  • Sufficient data exist to determine appropriate harvest levels or practices.
  • Monitoring and compliance measures are in place to ensure that harvest levels are maintained within acceptable limits.
  • Enforcement exists to ensure that harvesters follow regulations, and to prevent illegal practices and unreported harvest.

Farm-Raised Seafood Criteria:

• Farm-level certification against a GSSI-benchmarked standard (e.g., Global Aquaculture Alliance); OR
• In improvement and sourced from a credible Aquaculture Improvement Project (AIP); OR
• In assessment and sourced from a farm that is actively working towards certification.

Special Considerations:

• In addition to the criteria outlined above, canned tuna must comply with the International Sustainable Seafood Foundation (ISSF) sustainability conservation measures, including those adopted in collaboration with relevant tuna Regional Fishery Management Organizations (RFMO) and be sourced from vessels that are registered on the Pro-active Vessel Register (PVR). All black-listed vessels will be avoided. All exceptions to this will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
• All shrimp from Thailand is encouraged to be sourced from Seafood Task Force members and offer traceability back to vessel.
• Once a level of sustainability for a given product is achieved, sourcing agents may not revert to a lower level unless the more sustainable source is no longer available.

Ahold Delhaize is a member of the Seafood Task Force and a signatory to the World Economic Forum Tuna Declaration. As such, we have committed to identifying and mitigating social issues in Thai tuna and shrimp supply chains. Specifically, we are working with our suppliers to accomplish traceability to the harvesting vessel, and we will be implementing social compliance audits at each node along the supply chain in partnership with the Sustainable Supply Chain Initiative (SSCI). We intend to implement worker voice and grievance mechanisms along our supply chains and work with our suppliers to identify recruitment agencies and require the adoption of best practices. Through the Tuna Declaration, we are committed to traceability to the vessel for all fresh, frozen, and canned tuna from every country.

Ahold Delhaize USA partners with Trace Register to document source data for all seafood products. Data entered into Trace Register is automatically analyzed against vetted sources to ensure ongoing compliance with the sustainability policy.

At a minimum, suppliers must provide the following information:

• Latin and common name of the species
• Direct supplier name
• For fish caught at sea: FAO zone, catching country, and catch method
• For fish caught in freshwater: body of freshwater and catching country
• For aquaculture: country of origin, farm name and location, and certification number.