Lyons Seafoods first to market with MSC certified cold water prawns

Lyons Seafoods, Europe’s leading processor of king prawns, has launched the first ever range of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified cold water prawns in the UK.

The MSC is the world's leading certification and eco-labelling program for sustainable wild caught seafood and its blue MSC logo provides a guarantee to customers that the products are sourced in a way that safeguards seafood supplies for present and future generations.

Paul Vita, commercial director at Lyons Seafoods, said: “Our vision is to move towards becoming a 100% sustainable shellfish business and continue to minimise our environmental impact. The addition of MSC certified cold water prawns to our product range represents a significant step towards achieving this goal.

“We’ve worked for more than two years with our suppliers to achieve MSC status which recognises that our prawns are sustainable and responsibly fished, and to attain a full chain of custody certificate for our factory in Warminster. Our ultimate aim is to be able to supply all of our cold water prawns from certified sustainable sources.”

The launch is another first for Lyons Seafoods who has an established track record of leading the seafood market. The company was the first in the UK to introduce tiger prawns, the first in Europe to launch organic prawns in 2001, and in 2006 the first seafood company in Europe to require all its major suppliers of farmed prawns to be Best Aquaculture Practice (BAP) certified. As well as MSC certified cold water prawns from Canada, Lyons Seafoods have for some time offered customers MSC certified Patagonian scallops.