Policy Measures and Interventions (to Promote Aquatic Food Consumption)

Increasing the use of aquatic food among consumers in the Nordic countries requires finding ways that enable changes, taking into account the complexity of factors influencing aquatic food choices. Changes may require finding ways to break the existing habits to give space for new routines, and build consumers’ motivation and capability to make the changes, together with providing opportunities to select fish and seafood options. Adopting the COM-B approach (Michie et al., 2011) from the Nordic Council policy report (Jungsberg et al., 2024) entails that consumers' active behaviour change requires not only adequate motivation but also an opportunity and capability to make changes in the diet.

Motivation to increase aquatic food consumption can be supported by the social norms of nutrition recommendations and information about seafood being good for health, and, if chosen correctly, also sustainable to promote positive attitudes towards aquatic food. Those with high environmental and health orientations may be the ones most responsive to health-and sustainability-related information, because it aligns with their values and identity. There is also a need to pay attention to those consumers who may be more driven by convenience orientations and those with an interest or fear of novelty driving motivations. The motivational factors that are appealing differ in importance among consumers based on individual factors.

Capability to make changes refers to both physical and psychological capability. In increasing fish consumption, the lack of skills in handling and cooking the fish can be a barrier that needs overcoming. Health and sustainability claims or other product information require the capability to interpret the messages correctly. The lack of experience with cooking fish may also be a psychological barrier, creating uncertainty about buying and serving fish, as it carries a risk of failure in providing tasty food to the family.

Providing the opportunity to choose aquatic food can be physical and related to the availability of good-quality and local fish in the stores, or having the necessary financial resources to buy fish. There is also the social aspect of opportunity, as many meals are eaten together with other household members, which requires shared acceptance of decisions. Whereas motivation and capability mainly depend on individual consumers, opportunity depends on external factors. What is produced, what are the distribution channels, and what is the cost of fish?

When considering policy options to promote aquatic food consumption, it is important to also consider the possible behavioural mechanisms through which the behaviour changes can happen. Instead of trying to increase consumer motivation, one option is to bypass the reflective motivation and make changes in the choice architecture or impose regulations.

Nordic authorities’ efforts to promote aquatic food consumption

This chapter provides examples of how governmental authorities in Nordic countries participate in campaigns and initiatives aimed at promoting the consumption of aquatic foods.

Nordic nutrition recommendations

As described earlier in the report, the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (NNR) provide the scientific foundation for dietary guidelines in the Nordic countries. The most recent edition, NNR 2023, is the most comprehensive to date and is the first to explicitly combine health and environmental perspectives. It includes updated nutrient reference values as well as a broader assessment of different food groups. Information about NNR 2023 is shared through several channels, including the Nordic co‑operation website (www.norden.org) and websites of national authorities. The NNR is the basis for the national guidelines, which are promoted through various national channels. NNR 2023 is promoted through various channels, including the official Nordic Cooperation website and national authorities across the Nordic region, serving as the standard foundation for country-specific dietary guidelines and public health policies.

Fiskesprell – Norwegian national nutrition program

Fiskesprell is part of preventive public health efforts and aims to reduce social disparities in dietary habits. Public health in Norway is generally good, but there are significant differences in life expectancy and years lived in good health. Therefore, it is essential to ensure equal opportunities for all children and young people.

The goal of all activities in Fiskesprell is to facilitate increased seafood consumption among children and young people. This will be achieved by motivating and inspiring adults responsible for their diets, as well as the children and youth themselves, to prepare seafood dishes that they enjoy (source: fiskesprell.no).

The school curriculum for Food and Health emphasises that food and meals are vital for both physical and mental health. Nutrition is also addressed in other subjects, such as Physical Education, Social Studies, and Science, creating opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching. Knowledge about food and meals that promote healthy eating habits can help reduce health inequalities in the population. Fiskesprell encourages children and young people to eat healthier by learning more about seafood. The program works closely with schools, helping teachers to include seafood in Food and Health classes through free teaching materials and support with ingredients. Fiskesprell also offers courses for teachers in different subjects, helping them build confidence and knowledge about food and nutrition. In kindergartens and after-school programs, Fiskesprell helps implement national dietary guidelines through staff training. Additionally, it offers annual courses to universities, colleges, and vocational schools to ensure future educators understand the importance of healthy food offerings and gain practical experience in preparing seafood dishes.

Finland’s school meals

School meals in Finland are considered an integral part of education, upbringing, and promoting pupils’ well-being, as well as a key public health measure. The Finnish National Board of Education and the National Public Health Institute recommend that municipalities, education providers, and schools adhere to guidelines provided by the State Nutrition Advisory Board when planning and organising school meals.

Finland’s school meal guidelines encourage schools to provide healthy, well‑balanced meals that follow national dietary advice and cover about one‑third of a pupil’s daily energy needs. Schools are advised to serve fish at least once a week, and preferably twice, using low‑fat cooking methods and a variety of fish species. Fish is presented as an important part of a healthy diet, alongside vegetables, whole grains, and low‑fat dairy products. These guidelines aim to make sure children get the nutrients they need while helping them develop healthy eating habits that can last a lifetime, including regular seafood consumption (Finnish National Nutrition Council, 2017).

Sweden’s school meals

School meals in Sweden are an important part of both learning, health and social equality. They give children nutritious food that supports growth, concentration, and school performance, while also promoting fairness by providing free meals to all pupils, regardless of their background.

Swedish school meal guidelines encourage schools to serve fish and shellfish regularly as part of a healthy and environmentally responsible diet. Fish should be offered at least once a week, with fatty fish included every other time to ensure children get enough important nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D, which many children do not get enough of. Common examples of fatty fish include salmon, herring, and mackerel. However, some types of herring and certain wild-caught fish from the Baltic Sea and large lakes are not recommended due to environmental pollutants (Swedish Food Agency, 2023).

Finnish recommendation for workplace catering

In Finland, there is also a targeted nutrition recommendation for worktime eating, which is targeted to those who make decisions about organising worktime meals and restaurants and canteens that provide the services. The newest guidelines will be published in February 2026. These guidelines will give more detailed information about how the nutrition guidelines can be implemented in different work conditions, including shift work.

Paarisa (Socialstyrelsen) in Greenland

In Greenland, the authorities have run different campaigns and produced materials to promote fish consumption in Greenland. The Eat Fish campaign (Paarisa – Spis fisk) is a health promotion campaign with a focus on nutrition, targeting especially children and families. The materials include recipes, videos, and teaching materials, including a cookbook.

In 2016, another campaign, ‘Meeqqat aalisarlit’, targeted children and encouraged them to eat more fish with a gaming component of competing in sharing the best fish recipes.

Åland

The local government in Åland is running a campaign “Heja fisk” as part of the food-based dietary guidelines. In addition, the public local health organisation ran in 2025 a campaign (Måltid för Måltid (Folkhälsan på Åland) on locally caught fish as an important component of a climate-friendly diet.

Selection of initiatives by other organisations

In addition to direct initiatives from authorities, the Nordic and national food-based dietary guidelines are used as a basis for aquatic food promotion actions carried out by different organisations and interest groups. Below are a few examples of these activities.

The Norwegian Seafood Council is a marketing and communications organization that collaborates with the Norwegian seafood industry to increase the value of Norwegian seafood in both established and emerging markets worldwide. This includes activities to increase the consumption of Norwegian seafood in the Nordic countries. “Godfisk” (good fish) is the Norwegian Seafood Council’s brand, aimed at consumers in Norway. “Godfisk” aims to give Norwegian consumers inspiration and knowledge about seafood, and to make it easier to choose fish and shellfish more often. “Godfisk” seeks to foster positive attitudes and encourage most families to increase the number of seafood dinners from typically one to at least two meals per week. The goal is to promote enjoyment of food and knowledge about seafood, seafood dishes, and seafood seasons by showing how easy it is to prepare good, healthy seafood meals (The Norwegian Seafood Council, n.d.).

In Finland, the “Pro Kala” (Pro Fish) registered association has the aim to increase fish consumption among Finnish consumers by providing materials to increase knowledge of fish and its nutritional qualities, as well as ways to use fish in a versatile manner (Pro Kala, n.d.). Thus, the aim is to improve both consumer motivation and capabilities. “Pro Kala” is a non-profit association with organisational members from the fish sector, from fishermen and fish processors to fishmongers, covering the whole value chain. The association’s promotional campaigns included, in 2025, a fish soup day promoting different recipes for fish soup and the month of May as the fish month, with a challenge to eat fish at least twice a week (Pro Kala, n.d.).

In Denmark, several commercial and institutional actors have launched a campaign to promote eating fish at least twice per week (2gangeomugen, n.d.). The campaign is based on official nutrition recommendations, but the activities among the campaign partners are diverse, from producing promotional materials to marketing their own fish products and services.

In Iceland, the fish industry association “Seafood from Iceland” runs several campaigns promoting local fish, targeting mainly tourists and other consumers in export markets. The campaign uses humour and videos to endorse its message (Seafood from Iceland, n.d.)

“Smart Swedish Seafood” focuses on turning underused Swedish freshwater and Baltic fish, currently treated as bycatch or underused species, into nutritious and appealing food products. By bringing together people from the fishing industry, food producers, and researchers, it seeks to support sustainable fisheries, make better use of local resources, and boost food self‑sufficiency (Smart Swedish Seafood, n.d.).

EU initiatives for healthy and sustainable food consumption

The European Green Deal is the foundation for EU initiatives promoting healthy and sustainable food consumption. Its overarching objective is to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. To support these goals, the Green Deal sets out a plan for sustainable and inclusive growth that aims to stimulate the economy, improve public health and quality of life, and protect the environment. A key part of this effort is the Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy (European Commission, 2020). This strategy focuses on making Europe’s food system fairer, healthier, and more environmentally friendly. By creating a food environment that makes healthy and sustainable choices easier, the strategy can benefit people’s health, improve everyday well‑being, and help reduce healthcare costs for society. Aquatic foods and blue bioeconomy are integral to the F2F strategy by promoting sustainable food systems, increasing food security, and providing sustainable alternatives to land-based agriculture. Some of the key initiatives for sustainable food consumption and facilitating the shift towards healthy, sustainable diets that link to aquatic food consumption are:

Proposal for a harmonised mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labelling to enable consumers to make health-conscious food choices

As part of the F2F Strategy, the European Commission has announced plans to revise EU regulations concerning consumer information on food products (EU, 2020). The primary objective of this revision is to enhance food labelling to support healthier and more sustainable consumer choices and reduce food waste. Key proposals include:

The introduction of harmonised mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labelling, along with nutrient profiling criteria to regulate health and nutrition claims on food products
The extension of mandatory origin or provenance information for selected product categories
A revision of date marking rules, specifically concerning the use of "use by" and "best before" dates.

These measures aim to improve transparency and empower consumers to make informed decisions aligned with public health and sustainability goals.

Proposal for a sustainable food labelling framework to empower consumers to make sustainable food choices

The proposed legislative framework for sustainable food systems (FSFS) is one of the main initiatives of the Farm to Fork Strategy (EU, 2021). Its purpose is to guide how information about the sustainability of food products is shared with consumers. Together with other labelling initiatives like the ones on front-of-pack nutrition labelling (see above), animal welfare labelling and 'green claims', it will help ensure that consumers receive clear information about the nutritional value of food, as well as its climate, environmental, and social impacts.

Determine the best modalities for setting minimum mandatory criteria for sustainable food procurement to promote healthy and sustainable diets, including organic products, in schools and public institutions

To make sustainable food easier to find and more affordable, and to support healthier and more sustainable meals in public catering, the European Commission plans to introduce minimum requirements for sustainable food purchasing (European Commission, 2020). These requirements will help cities, regions and public authorities to choose more sustainable food for schools, hospitals and public institutions, and it will also boost sustainable farming systems, such as organic farming. At the same time, they would support sustainable farming practices, including organic production. The Commission also plans to lead by example by strengthening sustainability standards in the food services used in its own canteens.

Review of the EU school scheme legal framework with a view to refocusing the scheme on healthy and sustainable food

The Commission will review the EU school scheme to enhance its contribution to sustainable food consumption and, in particular, to strengthen educational messages on the importance of healthy nutrition, sustainable food production and reducing food waste.

Policy instruments for changing eating habits

This chapter uses the report “Policy Tools for Sustainable and Healthy Eating” (Jungsberg et al., 2024) as a starting point and explores how the insights can be used to increase consumption of aquatic foods. The aim is to suggest some practical policy measures that can help shift diets toward aquatic foods from sustainable sources. Additionally, the chapter explores opportunities to diversify consumption patterns by incorporating less commonly utilised species.

The chapter is structured as follows: it begins with a summary of the key findings of the “Policy Tools for Sustainable and Healthy Eating” report (Jungsberg et al., 2024), focusing on the framework for dietary change. It then moves on to present policy recommendations designed to increase the intake of sustainably sourced aquatic foods. Finally, it discusses potential opportunities and barriers to expanding the range of species consumed.

General overview of policy instruments

Policy instruments can broadly be classified into those that incentivise specific consumer behaviours and those that directly regulate individual actions (Banerjee et al., 2021). While most behavioural change initiatives are policy-driven, evidence from the literature indicates that certain approaches are more effective than others. The report “Policy Tools for Sustainable and Healthy Eating” (Jungsberg et al., 2024) reviewed evidence from previous studies on policy measures designed to support more environmentally sustainable diets (e.g. Ammann et al., 2023; Röös et al., 2021) as well as healthier eating habits (e.g. Livsmedelsverket, 2022). Four main types of policy tools were identified: market‑based instruments, regulatory measures, nudging approaches, and information‑based initiatives (Ammann et al., 2023). These measures are different in terms of how directly they affect consumer behaviour, with market‑based and regulatory measures generally seen as more intrusive, while nudging and information‑based approaches are considered less so (Banerjee et al., 2021). A description of each category follows:

Market-based instruments modify food prices through taxes and subsidies, thereby influencing consumer behaviour by altering relative price structures. Taxes on less healthy or environmentally harmful products, combined with subsidies for more nutritious and sustainable alternatives, are meant to encourage better food choices by making them more attractive and affordable (Critchley & Unwin, 2010; Culliford & Bradbury, 2020; De Schutter et al., 2020).

Regulatory measures, such as bans or restrictions on certain products, are the most direct form of intervention because they limit what consumers can choose from. These tools are usually introduced to address specific health or environmental risks and help maintain a controlled and safer marketplace. Although they can be effective in changing consumption patterns, they often spark debate about personal freedom and the appropriate role of government (Hatløy et al., 2021).

Nudging approaches aim to guide people toward healthier or more sustainable choices without taking options away. This can involve changes such as where products are placed, how large portions are, or how food is presented. Examples include making healthier foods easier to choose in cafeterias or increasing the availability of plant‑based options in public meals (Bucher et al., 2016; Coucke et al., 2019; de Vaan et al., 2019; Friis et al., 2017; Gynell et al., 2022).

Information-based measures focus on helping people make informed decisions by improving knowledge and awareness. These include food labels, education in schools, public information campaigns, and dietary guidelines (Ammann et al., 2023; Röös et al., 2021). Their effectiveness depends largely on consumer interest and perceived relevance, which explains their widespread adoption and high public acceptance (Banerjee et al., 2021; Macura et al., 2022).