Seafood ChoiCeS

Seafood Choices: Balancing Benefits and Risks
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11762.html
0 SEAFOOD ChOICES
them into something that can be presented to and discussed with the communities.
This communication process has enabled the scientific assessments
to be merged into different communication practices that result in better
public perception and understanding.
In the Inuit culture, each community has its own particular system
of knowledge and way of understanding, and the NCP has adapted communication
activities to these systems. Among the targeted and tailored
communications activities are school curriculums for children, posters, little
newsletters, and fact sheets. Radio, video shows, and a whole myriad of
different technologies are used to communicate these messages.
Most of these communications relate to benefits—country foods are
good for you and important for good nutrition. Little is said about contaminants
because the community had established that people really do not care
about bioaccumulation or PCBs. They want to know if their food is good
to eat. The community has told the scientists that contaminant messages
cannot just be “dumped” on communities. Information has to be put into
a context of an overall health and nutrition message. The NCP is delivering
these tailored health and nutrition messages, targeted to specific audiences
such as youth and pregnant or nursing women through a community-based
stakeholder program (Personal communication, E. Loring, Inuit Tapiriit
Kanatami, August 3, 2006; http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ncp/).
Summary
In summary, guidance to consumers regarding the benefits and risks of
seafood consumption may inform individual choices about which types of
seafood and how much to consume. The design of guidance should consider
the context of other product information, particularly labeling, available
to consumers to facilitate choice. These other information sources affect
choice as well as influence how effectively consumers can implement their
decisions once they are made. This distinction is important. For example,
labels provide information that consumers use to decide which products
to buy just as consumer guidance does. But they also facilitate choices that
have already been made. If, following guidance, consumers decide to add a
particular type of seafood from a specific region to their diets, will they be
able to effectively identify this product in a retail store? Do restaurant and
fast-food outlet menus give sufficient information for consumers to implement
their choices made on the basis of guidance?
IMPACT OF INFORMATION ON CONSUMER DECISION MAKING
Although it is difficult to attribute observed behavior changes to specific
advice, like national and local fish advisories, awareness of advisories
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