Recommendations and Future Directions

Efforts to increase the consumption of sustainable aquatic foods in the Nordic region must be grounded in insights into the factors influencing aquatic food choices and supported by effective policy instruments. Determinants of choice have been explored in the aquatic food choice framework and the preceding review of important factors, providing a foundation for targeted interventions. As highlighted in the Nordic Council report “Policy Tools for Sustainable and Healthy Eating” (Jungsberg et al., 2024), addressing the three essential components of behaviour change, capability, opportunity, and motivation, is critical for designing impactful strategies. Consumers need not only the motivation to adopt healthier and more sustainable diets but also the skills, resources, and an enabling environment to make these choices feasible. Moreover, achieving meaningful behaviour change requires a combination of policy instruments that target different determinants of aquatic food choice. Building on the recommendations from “Policy Tools for Sustainable and Healthy Eating,” the following sections outline actionable recommendations, based on the determinants of aquatic food choice, to promote sustainable aquatic food consumption through market-based, regulatory, nudging, and information-based approaches.

Market-based recommendations

Aquatic foods have seen the sharpest price increase of all food categories in the Nordic region, over 40% since 2015, making cost a major barrier for consumers to meet dietary recommendations. Because price is one of the strongest drivers in the aquatic food choice framework, lowering costs is essential to give consumers a real chance to choose fish and seafood. The report “Policy Tools for Sustainable and Healthy Eating” (Jungsberg et al., 2024) shows that lowering prices can lead to a clear increase in sales of specific food groups. For example, when Denmark removed the 20% VAT on fruit and vegetables, sales rose by 25% (Mikkelsen et al., 2021). Similar effects have been seen in Norway, where supermarket campaigns that reduced fish prices led to higher seafood consumption (NRK, 2023). Research also suggests that consumers respond more positively to subsidies than to taxes, with the removal of VAT being one of the most widely accepted measures (Lindahl, 2023).Based on these findings, reducing VAT on fish and seafood, in particular sustainably sourced products, would make them more affordable and encourage increased consumption. Additional measures, such as targeted subsidies to offset recent price increases, could further influence consumption and support increased choice of aquatic foods.

From a COM-B perspective, lowering prices expands opportunity, the external conditions that enable behaviour change. When fish becomes affordable, motivated consumers with the necessary skills can act on their intentions, making VAT cuts and subsidies powerful tools for increasing aquatic food intake.

Information-based policy recommendations

Individual factors in the aquatic food choice framework are the ones that can best be changed by information-based tools, which can enhance individual consumer knowledge, raise awareness and encourage consumers to modify their behaviour (Jungsberg et al., 2024). Individual factors are also the ones that can be used to select specific target groups for policy action.

Although consumption of aquatic foods is lower than recommended in most Nordic countries, especially among the young age groups, people eat fish and seafood less than recommended. Information efforts can be used to make young people more aware and knowledgeable about the benefits of eating aquatic food and thereby reinforce the message of food-based dietary guidelines on recommended use. Information campaigns based on nutrition recommendations mainly target changing attitudes as motivational factors, but they may also need additional activities, such as educational materials on skills or behavioural challenges linked to them, to strengthen the intended message. Furthermore, materials and messages used in campaigns need to be pre-tested among the target group in order to guarantee that the messages are understood as intended.

Young consumers can be seen as a primary target group for information-based policy instruments. Providing funding for running integrated campaigns combining awareness and educational materials with skill-building (e.g., cooking workshops, online tutorials) would support the use of aquatic foods among young adults by trying to change both their attitudes (motivation) and their capabilities to prepare fish and seafood. Although young adults can be regarded as the primary target group, the approach can be tailored to other target audiences as well.

Information-based tools include different labelling systems, and some of these are under regulatory control, such as health claims or nutrition labelling, whereas others are based on various labelling systems governed by both private and public actors. Consumers increasingly expect their choices to align with ecological sustainability, but the lack of straightforward guidance on how to make environmentally sound choices at the point of purchase can create confusion and reluctance among buyers (Petereit et al., 2022). Hence, fostering clearer communication about the consequences of seafood consumption, especially its environmental footprint and animal welfare, can enhance consumer engagement. (Govaerts and Altintzoglou, 2024).

Aquatic products are perceived to be good for health in consumers’ minds, and encouraging to make this message clearer in food packaging would remind consumers about this in the shopping context. Developing and supporting harmonised labelling systems would benefit consumers’ decision-making. The majority of fish products can carry a keyhole label in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, and the same applies to the Finnish Heart symbol to an extent. The keyhole and heart symbols give consumers an opportunity to identify the better options among the products in the supermarket. These labels are likely to appeal more to health-oriented consumers. Similarly, for environmentally conscious consumers, the low carbon footprint and sustainability certifications on the package can give added value (MSC, ASC).

In addition to an information-based approach, regulatory policy instruments could also be used to harmonise and simplify the sustainability and health labelling in products to support the ease of finding the relevant information when consumers are making purchases. This would improve consumers’ opportunity to perceive the information in an accessible mode.

An increasing number of consumers are identifying themselves as flexitarians or consumers who try to reduce meat consumption. In addition to plant-based foods, fish and especially fish from local or underused species could be promoted as an alternative to meat among consumers who wish to reduce meat. Information about the possible less-used aquatic food alternatives and support on how these raw materials can be best utilised would both provide an opportunity and increase the capability of using new fish products.

Information campaigns could leverage cultural traditions by promoting aquatic food in connection with Nordic cultural events (e.g., seasonal festivities) and bringing up traditional dishes to strengthen cultural relevance. These campaigns could be linked to developing new product alternatives that rely on traditional fish ingredients but modify them to modern dishes (Logren et al., 2025). Combining tradition and modern dishes increases familiarity with food and thereby supports the acceptance of new traditional options by removing capability barriers.

The advantage of information-based tools is the relative ease of applying them and the ability to tailor the messages and campaigns to specific target groups, governing the heterogeneity of consumers’ various food-related orientations and interests. Information-based policy instruments have high social acceptance as they appeal to consumers’ freedom to make choices, but they are not very effective in inducing behaviour change (Jungsberg et al., 2024). Information-based instruments mainly support motivation in the COM-B model, but when combined with educational aspects, they can also improve consumers' capability and provide an opportunity to make desired choices.

Regulatory-based policy recommendations

Contextual factors and social norms are an important part of the aquatic food choice model. Regulation-based policy instruments can change the choice context and thereby promote the use of fish and seafood. In the Nordic Council Policy report (Jungsberg et al., 2024), regulatory instruments are divided into those that relate to consumer choice, marketing, public procurement and the new types of instruments. From these, public procurement is the most feasible option in the short term.

Aquatic foods can be promoted by strengthening the public procurement policies to ensure that schools, hospitals, and workplace restaurants serve a fish option at least twice per week, following the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations. Implementing such a regulatory measure requires support actions to guarantee that the catering personnel have the required skills and competence to follow the recommendations, as well as sufficient financial resources to back up the policy. Putting emphasis on fish and seafood in the education and training of foodservice professionals as a supportive information-based approach would support capability building in both the public and private foodservice sectors.

As regulatory measures are often seen as intrusive and restricting consumers’ own choice, social acceptance of them may be low (Ammann et al., 2023). This may require implementing supportive information-based policy action to build support for the procurement policies. From a consumer perspective, the restriction of choice can be a negative aspect, but at the same time, it bypasses the possible hurdles of needing skills to prepare the fish and provides a frequent opportunity to eat aquatic food.

As young people have lower fish consumption and report limited cooking skills (Heide et al., 2023), mandatory education and training in handling and preparing fish and other aquatic foods in school curricula (e.g. as part of Home Economics) would improve young consumers’ capability to use fish in cooking.

The previous Nordic council report “Policy Tools for Sustainable and Healthy Eating” (Jungsberg et al., 2024) brings forward new types of regulatory instruments targeting the producers and retailers' side of the food value chain. For aquatic food, these kinds of regulations might demand retailers to keep a certain degree of aquatic food products available in the store or make it mandatory to have promotional material for desired options, such as eating fish twice per week, visible in the store, thus supporting consumers’ opportunity and capability to make better choices. Although there is little evidence of how to implement these kinds of actions or what their effectiveness would be, regulatory instruments that target the choice environment and upper part of the value chain should be considered as possible options to influence consumer behaviour, as they may improve consumers’ opportunity and motivation to buy aquatic food products.

In relation to the COM-B model, regulatory policy tools do not try to change consumers’ motivational factors directly; instead, they try to change the market and use environment in a way that improves consumers' capability and opportunity to make better choices.

Nudging-based policy recommendations

Habits and social norms play an important role in the aquatic food choice framework. One way to influence these factors is by using default options, a nudging approach discussed in “Policy Tools for Sustainable and Healthy Eating” (Jungsberg et al., 2024). Default options are pre‑set choices that automatically apply unless a person actively decides to change them. In everyday situations, this means that the default is followed if no conscious action is taken by the consumer. Such defaults are widely used in nudging because people often go along with the option already in place, rather than making an effort to choose something else (Lemken et al., 2023).

For aquatic food, this can be achieved by making fish the standard protein choice in public meals, such as school lunches, workplace canteens, and hospital catering, one or several days a week. This strategy can significantly increase consumption without restricting freedom of choice. When fish is presented as the standard option in shared eating settings, it helps shape social norms, encourages positive attitudes, and lowers practical barriers. Default options also make decisions easier by reducing the effort needed to choose, which supports the development of new habits. By making fish the standard choice, institutions can help people make healthier and more sustainable decisions with little extra effort. Introducing this policy in public meals is also in line with literature showing that nudges may be more effective in controlled environments, such as school cafeterias or workplace dining areas (Thapa and Lyford, 2014).

From a COM-B perspective, making fish the default option helps shape the food environment so that healthier choices are easier and more appealing. When people see others making the same choice, it feels more natural to follow along, especially when the option is convenient. This can be combined with clear information about sustainability, which can support a faster shift toward healthier and more environmentally responsible diets in Nordic public institutions.

Recommendations for expanding the range of species consumed

In Nordic countries, aquatic food consumption is concentrated on a few well-known species such as salmon and cod, even though the Nordic fishery and aquaculture industry supplies a huge selection of species. Many of these lesser-used species are much more affordable than the established ones, offering an opportunity for price-conscious consumers and those with lower incomes to meet dietary recommendations without increasing costs. The aquatic food choice framework identifies key barriers to adopting these species. Limited food literacy, including cooking skills and knowledge, often makes consumers hesitant to purchase and prepare unfamiliar fish. Food neophobia, or reluctance to try novel foods, further reduces acceptance of less familiar species. On the other hand, innovativeness serves as an important enabler; consumers who are open to novelty are more likely to adopt new species.

Several actions can be taken to increase the consumption of less-used species:

Increase food literacy
1. Develop educational campaigns and interactive cooking workshops focused on preparing less familiar species.
2. Provide step-by-step recipes, interactive, and recipes on packaging for easy access to guidance on how to cook less-used species.
3. Integrate aquatic food literacy on aspects ranging from acquisition, how to prepare and store, and how to cook seafood lesser-used species into school curricula and other consumer education programs.

Reduce Food Neophobia
1. Organise tasting events in schools, workplace canteens, and public spaces to increase familiarity and positive sensory experiences. Support companies and initiatives that focus on bringing less-used species to the market.
2. Mandate variety in institutional catering (schools, workplace canteens by including less-used species in menus.
3. Collaborate with chefs and influencers to normalise these species through social media and cooking shows.
4. Use storytelling and cultural narratives to connect lesser-known species to Nordic traditions and sustainability.
Nudging options
1. Introduce default options in institutional catering (schools, hospitals, workplace canteens) where less established species are the standard protein choice one or more days per week.
2. Pair defaults with clear sustainability and health labelling to reinforce trust and positive attitudes.

In terms of COM-B, this approach targets all behavioural change mechanisms. It builds Capability by improving food literacy through education, tasting events, and practical help, such as recipes. It creates opportunities by making unfamiliar species more accessible and socially accepted through tasting events, menu variety in institutional catering, default options in public meals, and collaborations with chefs or influencers. Finally, it strengthens motivation by reducing neophobia through positive experiences and cultural storytelling, leveraging innovativeness with campaigns highlighting novelty and sustainability, offering convenient products such as meal kits, and using clear health and sustainability labelling to build trust. Together, these actions address skills, environment, and attitudes to drive lasting adoption of less-used aquatic species.

It is also important to leverage previous or existing campaigns and initiatives on increasing the consumption of less-used species, such as:

Smart Swedish Seafood - Underutilised Fish Species (Sweden)

This initiative promotes freshwater and Baltic Sea species such as bream and burbot. It has developed consumer products like minced bream and frozen fish cakes, turning bycatch into valuable food items and increasing the utilisation of these species in Swedish kitchens. Active since 2020 (Axfoundation, n.d.)

Hooked on Herring – Marketing Danish Herring (Denmark)

The “Herring 52” campaign promoted the health and sustainability benefits of herring across Denmark and neighbouring countries, achieving 13 million impressions and 2.9 million video views. Campaign launched in 2022 (Danish Pelagic Producers’ Organisation, n.d.)

Smartfisk – Local Lake Fish Education (Finland)

Introduces Finnish Lake fish (roach, bream, perch) into schools across Finland and Åland. Students aged 12–18 learn to fillet and cook these species, fostering appreciation for local, sustainable aquatic foods. Recipe development and dissemination. EU-funded project, active since 2021 (Martha Foundation, n.d.)