More if By Sea....Getting Americans to Eat Fish and Seafood More Frequently

Moderator: Arlin Wasserman, Changing Tastes

Speakers: RJ Harvey, Chef, Changing Tastes

                  Penelope Wasserman, Changing Tastes

Wild or farmed? Fresh or frozen? Contrary to the conventional wisdom, these perennial questions actually remain unanswered by American consumers and aren’t even the most important for our industry. That may be: Fish or Chicken? Or really, what should I eat? This session will feature results from an unprecedented new insights study into consumer, chef and purchasing manager opinions about fish and seafood and how they fit into American food choices. More importantly than the "wild" or "farmed" questions, how fish and seafood is harvested and handled may make the difference about whether fish and seafood is offered up and whether a consumer eats fish, seafood or maybe chooses something else entirely, like beef or chicken. That’s an important question as the American consumer is undergoing a substantial change in the types of protein we eat, and the next few years pose a unique time to fish and shellfish to win market share from birds and mammals. We'll explore that and also share some of Changing Tastes' latest insights and trends about how consumers think about protein choices in the US and on the menu, as seafood competes against poultry and meat, and how newly emerging cellular and plant-based manufactured alternatives fit into our preferences and intentions. One thing to know: attitudes and preferences vary by species, including whether cellular or plant-based replacements are of interest. And we’ll also look at how consumer thoughts and expectations about how fish is produced compared to other protein choices. Through this session, we hope to break the industry out of the "wild or farmed" paradigm and offer practical advice for how to increase the share of food from the ocean in the American diet and get us eating fish and seafood more often and instead of chicken (again).