Press Release: February 2019
Aspiring chefs from Europe’s top catering schools are competing at national and European level to create innovative, exciting seafood recipes that will satisfy the taste buds of European consumers. The winning recipes, selected by consumers, will be adapted for production in restaurants, hotels and canteens, with the support of the EU-funded SEAFOODTOMORROW project. Sustainability is key and competitors are required to use locally-sourced fish that have been long-neglected on supermarket shelves. The recipes will also cater specifically to pregnant women, older people and children, groups which are shown to benefit from seafood dishes with specific nutritional profiles.
Dr. António Marques, SEAFOODTOMORROW coordinator, explains, “Seafood is one of the most important sources of animal protein, and is naturally rich in vitamins (A, D3, B12), minerals (iodine, selenium) and fatty acids (polyunsaturated fatty acids) that can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. We are designing fish dishes that appeal to specific consumer groups, which are also nutritionally balanced”.
By selecting sustainably sourced but rarely-used fish in local regions, researchers from the project are hoping to promote seafood consumption across Europe that is socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. With the ever-increasing demand for seafood from the world’s growing population, providing seafood safely and sustainably for the global market has become a major challenge. The SEAFOODTOMORROW project addresses this by developing innovative solutions for improving the safety and dietary properties of seafood in Europe.
The first of six national contests was held in Lisbon, Portugal in December 2018, and the next event will take place on 20 February 2019 in Barcelona, Spain. Competitions will also take place throughout March and April in Belgium, France, Poland and Sweden. Six different seafood dishes will be selected from each national contest and will advance to the European competition to be held in June 2019. During the series of one-day events, students will battle to impress a panel of judges made up of researchers, food industry experts and media figures, creating dishes using sustainable species from their region which aren’t often eaten, such as chub and horse mackerel, and gilthead seabream. The winning dishes will be selected based on a number of criteria, including their economic feasibility and scalability, sustainability, and how well they met the needs of the target consumers.
“We believe our seas and oceans can feed the growing global population, but we need to do it in a sustainable way”, explains Dr. Marques. By helping consumers to make more responsible seafood choices, it is hoped that the recipe contest will contribute to a more sustainable seafood market, and more sustainable ocean resources in the longer term.
Follow the competition on www.seafoodtomorrow.eu where the winning dishes will be announced – stay tuned!
CONTACT DETAILS
For communication and press queries, please contact Dr. Annette Wilson, Project Officer AquaTT, telephone: +353 1 644 9008 or email: annette@aquatt.ie. For more information on the SEAFOODTOMORROW project please see the project website https://seafoodtomorrow.eu/.
NOTES TO EDITORS
SEAFOODTOMORROW Nutritious, safe and sustainable seafood for consumers of tomorrow is an Innovation Action project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme (Grant Agreement no. 773400). The project will run for three years from 2017 to 2020. The consortium of 35 partners represents leading organisations in their respective fields of work from across 16 European countries. The project is coordinated by Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA), Portugal. AquaTT is the project dissemination partner. SEAFOODTOMORROW aims to develop innovative sustainable solutions for improving the safety and dietary value of seafood in Europe. In addressing the challenges to meet a growing market need for safe and sustainable seafood, the project will generate new knowledge to develop commercially viable eco-innovative solutions for improving the socio-economic and environmental sustainability of European seafood production, and the processing industry.
The SEAFOODTOMORROW Recipes Challenge is organised by project partners: IDmer and Ethic Ocean. For more information, please see the competition flyer here or follow updates on the Ethic Ocean Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ethicocean/
Issued on behalf of the SEAFOODTOMORROW project by AquaTT.