A Sustainable future for Fish City Belfast
Northern Ireland Tourist Board
NI Food and Drink, Belfast • 26 March 2018
John and Grainne Lavery are settling back into the daily drive of delivering high quality seafood after Fish City in Belfast became the 'UK’s Healthiest and most Sustainable' fish and chip business.
This award-winning restaurant and takeaway has been winning awards since opening in summer 2016 and these latest two are the pinnacle as they were announced by Seafish and the leaders of their industry in London.
Fish City was presented with the two UK awards, following their success competing against businesses from the whole of the UK. Since achieving a new and healthier offering to customers and ensuring that all of their seafood is sustainable, John and Grainne have developed a unique experience to customers, which has a strong environmental focus and is core to Fish City’s ethos.
“As well as enjoying good food, we want people to feel good about food and their contribution to ensuring our seas are protected for future generations”, stated John Lavery owner of Fish City, located on Ann Street Belfast.
John explained how his experience of entering for the award has been a positive journey for him and his team. “Fish City’s foundations are based on four buildings blocks: quality of food; sustainability; healthy eating; and education of those principles to our staff, and the general public.
He continued, “Grainne and I have been fully committed to sustainability, protecting our oceans for future generations, and to healthy eating. We firmly believe they are interlinked and an integral part of the Fish City brand and its future growth.
As well as enjoying good food, we want people to feel good about food and their contribution to ensuring our seas are protected for future generations.
“We have endorsed the policies of the Marine Stewardship Council and the Marine Conservation Society and have been grateful for all of their support and guidance since our opening. Fish City is proudly the first retailer on the island of Ireland to be MSC certified and the first fish and chip corporate member with the Marine Conservation Society in the United Kingdom.
“Since high profile celebrities, including Mick Jagger, endorsed the call for changes to our oceans, particularly with #nomoreplasic and now with further support published by Buckingham Palace, these issues are at last being talked about within the public arena and achieving the profile it deserves.”
Buckingham Palace outlined new waste plans and said there was a “strong desire to tackle the issue” in the royal household, in a move thought to be inspired by David Attenborough. As part of that, they have taken a number of practical steps to cut back on the use of plastics. “At all levels, there's a strong desire to tackle this issue.”
The first-ever European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy was adopted on January 16, 2018 which will transform the way plastic products are designed, used, produced and recycled in the EU. “Although how this EU Strategy will be implemented in Northern Ireland with the proposed Brexit changes hasn’t been clarified, but again, it is a positive step forward” says John.
“As well as ensuring sustainable seafood, we have taken measures in our business to remove plastic forks from our takeaway, adopt glass bottles for our restaurant table water, commissioned a recycling company to collect our waste and currently reviewing other ways the business can make a positive impact.
“We have been proactive in building partnerships with various institutions and stakeholders. Among these are the Food Standards Agency, resulting in Fish City being the first independent business to have achieved the ‘FSA Calorie Wise accreditation’.
“We continue to work with schools through the Fish City Kids Club, to educate children of the importance of eating fish for a healthy diet and mental well-being. We also actively discuss the importance of sustainability and the protection of our oceans.
“With our corporate colleagues, we work with local businesses, tourism agencies, food and restaurant associations to promote the fish and chip industry and our core beliefs. We know the strong link between tourism and business development, so we have developed these opportunities and in 2017 we were presented with top 2 Sustainable Tourism Award NI by the Tourism Board Northern Ireland, which was a great achievement for us.
It is a great honour to have Fish City recognised by the key leaders in the industry and to bring home these two UK awards to Northern Ireland, competing against the rest of Great Britain. We thank our team which proactively deliver Fish City’s policies in sustainability and appeal to other businesses to look at ways they can be proactive in supporting their local environment and oceans for future generations. For more information on Fish City’s policies, partners and new business initiatives, go to www.fish-city.com or follow them on Twitter.