SALISBURY, N.C. — An industry leader in sustainability, Food Lion announced today that it has joined the Ocean Disclosure Project (ODP), a global platform where retailers voluntarily share insight into their sourcing methods to ensure sustainability. All seafood products sold in Food Lion stores are fully traceable to the wild fishery or farm, and come from sustainable sources, and Food Lion’s Ocean Disclosure Project public profile outlines the origin of wild-caught species offered for sale at Food Lion’s more than 1,000 stores. The easy-reference platform enables customers to make more informed decisions when shopping with Food Lion and will be updated annually.
The ODP was created by Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, a non-profit organization that works directly with the seafood industry to improve the sustainability of seafood.
“When you buy seafood at Food Lion you can trust that the products you buy in our stores are brought to you in a way that you can feel good about,” said Meg Ham, president of Food Lion. “Being a good neighbor to us means offering the products and services our customers expect from Food Lion, but also sourcing and packaging those products and operating our stores in a sustainable way. It’s important to us that our customers know where their seafood comes from, so it only makes sense to join the ODP and make public the origin of wild-caught seafood sold in our stores.”
Food Lion works closely with a nonprofit science partner, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI), to vet all seafood that enters stores against the specific criteria in Food Lion’s sustainable seafood policy.
“Being able to trace seafood back to its source has always been an important part of Food Lion’s seafood policy, and joining the ODP adds a new level of transparency that is exciting and important for driving change on global seafood sustainability issues,” said Kyle Foley, senior program manager at GMRI.
The announcement marks the latest sustainability commitment for Food Lion, long an industry leader in operating in a responsible way.
In September, the retailer announced a new commitment to restrict certain chemicals from all private-label products and packaging, working in partnership with Retail Business Services, which develops private brand products for each of the Ahold Delhaize USA local brands. The commitment also includes working with suppliers to ensure products meet high standards for ingredients beyond what’s required by law today and includes a collaborative effort with suppliers to address root causes of contaminants.
Additionally, Food Lion is the only retailer in the country that has received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ENERGY STAR award for 18 consecutive years. Since beginning a partnership with the EPA and ENERGY STAR in 2001, Food Lion’s energy reductions are equivalent to powering nearly 100,000 homes for one year.
For more information on Food Lion’s commitment to sustainability, click here.
About the Ocean Disclosure ProjectEstablished in 2015 by Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, the Ocean Disclosure Project (ODP) is a global platform for voluntary disclosure of seafood sourcing. The ODP is dedicated to increasing transparency in seafood supply chains by encouraging seafood-buying companies to publicly report on the seafood they source. The ODP provides a common template through which companies can report the fisheries and fish farms they source from, alongside information on the provenance, stock status and management, and environmental impact (including impacts on protected, endangered, and threatened species, bycatch, and benthic habitats, marine inputs for fish feed, and farming impacts on wild species and water quality) of these sources. This information is used to create annual profiles reflecting the company’s sourcing from the previous year, which are then published on the ODP website. Visit us at www.oceandisclosureproject.org.
About Food Lion
Food Lion, based in Salisbury, N.C., since 1957, has more than 1,000 stores in 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states and employs more than 63,000 associates. By leveraging its longstanding heritage of low prices and convenient locations, Food Lion is working to own the easiest full shop grocery experience in the Southeast, anchored by a strong commitment to affordability, freshness and the communities it serves. Through Food Lion Feeds, the company has donated more than 500 million meals to individuals and families since 2014, and has committed to donate 1 billion more meals by 2025. Food Lion is a company of Ahold Delhaize USA, the U.S. division of Zaandam-based Ahold Delhaize. For more information, visit www.foodlion.com.
