WASHINGTON – Vital Choice Wild Seafood & Organics, a food delivery company based in Washington State, was awarded the U.S. Ocean Champion award by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) today. The award acknowledges and celebrates U.S. retail and fisheries partners who have gone above and beyond to demonstrate their dedication to healthy oceans and a transparent supply chain. The annual award recognizes MSC partners for ensuring an ocean full of life now and into the future.
Founded by fisherman Randy Hartnell over 20 years ago, Vital Choice has long supported MSC and its goal of promoting sustainable seafood sourcing to help protect seafood as a source of nutritious wild food while keeping our oceans healthy. Vital Choice is proud that so many of its products carry the MSC blue label – a third-party certification for wild, sustainable seafood. The MSC blue fish label can only be applied to wild-caught fish or seafood from a fishery that has been independently assessed for its impacts on wild fish populations and the ecosystems they are a part of. To earn the label, every company within that supply chain must have a valid MSC Chain of Custody (CoC) certificate. To achieve and maintain CoC certification, a business must be regularly audited against the CoC Standard by an independent certification body, and must undergo reassessment every three years. Vital Choice has been an MSC partner since 2001.
“We truly believe in keeping our oceans healthy and built our company around the idea of sustainable sourcing,” says Dave Hamburg, Vital Choice President. “We have been proud to work alongside MSC for so many years helping to educate customers and others in the fishing industry on the importance of sustainable fishing.”
“Congratulations to Vital Choice on being named a 2020 MSC U.S. Ocean Champion awardee,” said Eric Critchlow, MSC US Program Director. “The awards are designed to recognize MSC partners for going above and beyond the MSC commitment, and Vital Choice has demonstrated that with their 20-year partnership record, line of MSC labeled products, and dedication to educating customers about the need to support healthy fisheries.”
The U.S. Ocean Champion Award recognizes Vital Choice’s dedication to sustainable sourcing and their company mission to “promote [its] customers’ health and well-being by providing natural, sustainably harvested seafood products of superior quality at a fair price.”
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About Vital Choice Wild Seafood & Organics
Before founding Vital Choice in 2001, Northwest Washington native Randy Hartnell spent more than 20 years as a commercial fisherman in Alaska.
Today, Vital Choice is the trusted source for fast home delivery of the world’s finest wild Alaskan seafood, whole-food supplements, and organic fare.
Vital Choice foods are the purest available, always sustainably harvested from healthy, well-managed wild fisheries and organic farms.
The company’s products are recognized for their superior taste and health benefits and endorsed by leading health and wellness experts.
For more about Vital Choice Wild Seafood & Organics, please visit www.vitalchoice.com.
Contact: Heather Monkman, heather@vitalchoice.com
About the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international non-profit organization. Our vision is for the world’s oceans to be teeming with life, and seafood supplies safeguarded for this and future generations. Our blue label and certification program recognizes and rewards sustainable fishing practices and is helping create a more sustainable seafood market. It is the only wild-capture fisheries certification and ecolabelling program that meets best practice requirements set by both the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) and ISEAL, the global membership association for sustainability standards. Fisheries representing more than 17% of the world’s wild marine catch are engaged in its certification program and more than 18,000 different MSC labelled products are available on shelves across the globe*. (*figures accurate as of 31 March 2020). For more information visit www.msc.org or follow @MSCBlueFish on social media.
