21st September 2022
We were in IPMA, in Algés, for an event from NEPTUNUS project, on the 21st September 2022, to discuss the challenges of climate change in seafood industry, considering mainly the packaging and processing of seafood.
The first part of the event was dedicated to the environmental assessment of seafood considering the contribution of processing and packaging. The event started with Maria Margallo, from University of Cantabria, talking about environmental certification and its usefulness for the fisheries and aquaculture sectors. Followed by Cheila Almeida, from IPMA, which approached the environmental impacts from processing and packaging of seafood products, using canned fish and salted and dried cod as case studies.
Isabel Tato, from the ANICP, the National Association of Canned Fish Industries, Isabel Tato, spoke about the ambition and objectives of the canning industry to become more sustainable, contributing to an environmental and social improvement with its activities.
Patrícia Carvalho, from the Portuguese Pact for Plastics, shared the goals of the organization to reduce effectively the plastics and improve recycling through commitments from companies and organizations, giving specific examples for the seafood sector.
Ana Carvalho, from CEGIST, IST-UL, addressed the issue of circular economy at the level of companies and how the seafood sector can find synergies, for example, with other type of sectors.
Elga Almeida, from Sociedade Ponto Verde (SPV), talked about the work that SPV has been done in Portugal to promote packaging recycling, and more specifically approached seafood packaging materials and how to enhance their recycling.
Ricardo Macedo, from Auchan, addressed the challenges in the seafood distribution and retailing, including their contribution to avoid seafood waste and difficulties on doing that with such a perishable food as fish.
We ended up the event with a fruitful discussion around “What is being done and what remains to be done in terms of packaging, processing and distribution to meet the challenge of climate change?” A roundtable was held with companies related with frozen products, salted and dried cod processing, canning seafood, and a well-known chef that has worked in the valorisation of Portuguese seafood. To understand the challenges that each company face we had the participation of Manuel Tarré, from Gelpeixe and director of ALIF, the Cold Food Industry Association; Joselito Lucas, from Lugrade; Tiago Pereira, from Conserveira de Lisboa; and chef Bertílio Gomes, from Taverna Albaricoque restaurant.
