Salmon Salad Sandwiches - The New Power Lunch for Children

KidSafe Seafood and Henry & Lisa’s Launch Back-To-School Initiative

(August 27, 2007 - Silver Spring, MD) KidSafe Seafood, a SeaWeb program, and Henry & Lisa’s Natural Seafood today launched an initiative to promote canned wild salmon as the new “power lunch” for children, and a great source of brain food for the lunchbox.

“As back-to-school time approaches, parents are looking for new, healthy food to put in their kids’ lunchboxes,” said SeaWeb Managing Director Hollis Hope. “Canned wild salmon makes a great alternative to the same old tuna fish sandwich, and it is packed with Omega 3’s. It is also low in contaminants like mercury.”

The initiative includes an online campaign and more than 200 nationwide, in-store tastings over the months of late August, September and October, including Whole Foods and Wild Oats. Parents can also get at the in-store tastings kid-friendly recipes, seafood tips and information about canned wild salmon.

“Henry and Lisa’s Wild Alaskan Pink Salmon are caught in the pure waters of Prince William Sound by local family fishers,” said Henry & Lisa’s President/Founder Henry Lovejoy. “Henry & Lisa’s seafood is independently tested for contaminants and offers the highest quality products. Our pink salmon is a great choice for the whole family, safe for all ages to eat, full of Omega 3’s and protein.”

The back-to-school initiative is part of the KidSafe Seafood campaign, which is acollaborative effort of chefs, pediatricians and sustainableseafood experts to help parents serve more nutritious seafood to their children. The campaign features a Best Choices list, information about how to avoid mercury and other pollutants that can be found in fish and guidance for making ocean-friendly seafood choices. KidSafe Seafood Best Choices are wild Alaskan salmon, fresh tilapia, farmed Blue mussels, Northern U.S. and Canadian shrimp, U.S. farmed crayfish and farmed bay scallops.

With rates of childhood obesity, diabetes and other serious children’s health issues skyrocketing, it is more important than ever that we pay attention to our kids’ diet and nutrition. Seafood is a great way to add more nutrition to your children’s diets. Especially seafood high in Omega 3’s and low in contaminants. It is a great source of lean protein and low in saturated fats.

But seafood can be a challenge for parents. Many busy parents think seafood is too complicated to cook at home or to get finicky eaters to eat. And, some seafood is healthier than others for children. KidSafe Seafood takes the guesswork out of choosing and preparing seafood for kids at home.

Pregnant women receive clear information about what and how much fish to eat, but most parents are unsure of how to translate these guidelines to feeding their children, whose small bodies and rapidly developing brains also need protection. KidSafe Seafood provides those guidelines and identifies the fish that are good for our kids to eat.

To learn more about KidSafe Seafood and download recipes visit www.kidsafeseafood.org.

To learn more about Henry & Lisa’s Natural Seafood visit www.ecofish.com.

In-store demos include the following retailers: Whole Foods, Sprouts, New Seasons, Mother’s Market, Ukrops, Earth Fare, Big Y, My Organic Market and Wild Oats. Location and dates available upon request.

Recipes and graphics available upon request.

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KidSafe Seafood is a program of SeaWeb, an independent communications-based nonprofit organization focused on advancing ocean conservation and ensuring a healthy seafood supply for the future.

Henry & Lisa’s Natural Seafood offers consumers an easy solution to a fragile problem by taking the guesswork out of enjoying the nutritious bounty that our oceans have to offer. With a deep-rooted passion for seafood and for preserving the environment, Henry and Lisa Lovejoy help consumers nurture their health and the environment with their Henry & Lisa’s Natural Seafood brand. In 1999, the Lovejoys founded Henry & Lisa’s Natural Seafood’s parent company, EcoFish, Inc., the first to market only all natural sustainable seafood species, and have pioneered the category ever since.

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KidSafe Seafood Helps Parents Navigate Dinnertime Choices

New Initiative Highlights the “Healthiest Fish in the Sea” for Children

(October 19, 2006 - Washington, DC) Parents committed to feeding their children a healthy diet can now get clear information about seafood, thanks to a new collaborative effort of chefs, pediatricians, and sustainable seafood experts, called KidSafe Seafood. Spearheaded by SeaWeb and the Roy Disney Family Foundation in response to the increasing interest in serving kids low-fat, nutrient-rich seafood to counter the surge in childhood obesity and diet-related illnesses, KidSafe Seafood clearly identifies some of the healthiest seafood choices for kids—and provides easy recipes and resources for busy parents.

A new Institute of Medicine report, released this week, validates that a wide variety of low-contaminant seafoods can play an important part in a healthy diet for children. It also acknowledges that parents and other consumers need clearer guidance to sort through often confusing information about the risks and benefits of eating seafood. While seafood offers omega-3 fatty acids, lean protein, and a variety of vitamins and minerals, most fish contain at least trace amounts of toxic industrial pollutants, particularly mercury and PCBs, that can be harmful to children’s growing bodies and rapidly developing brains.

"As a pediatrician, I find that many parents are confused about which fish are best for kids.They know fish is good for them, but they are unsure about which types are safe to serve,” said Dr. James Sears, a pediatrician and author of parenting books who helped develop KidSafe Seafood.“Fish are one of the most nutritious foods for kids, but it is important to select the right ones.”

The top ranking KidSafe Seafood choices are:

  • Wild Alaskan salmon (preferably pink and chum)
  • Tilapia (preferably from the United States or Central America)
  • Shrimp (preferably U.S. farmed, Oregon pink, & northern “salad”shrimp)
  • Farmed bay scallops
  • Farmed blue mussels

Through a rigorous assessment process that analyzed the 65 most commonly eaten seafoods, the program has identified the very best seafood choices for kids—those that are sufficiently low inmercury and PCBs as to be the safer options for children age 3 and older to eat at least once a week, based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s guidelines. All KidSafe Seafoods also meet high standards for nutrition and environmental friendliness to guide parents who are looking for the all-around best choices.

“Our task as parents can no longer be about just getting kids to clean their plates,” adds Michel Nischan, chef and owner with Paul Newman of The Dressing Room, A Homegrown Restaurant in Westport, CT. A father of five, Nischan changed how his own family eats after one of his sons was diagnosed with diabetes. “We have to pick foods more carefully–for nutritional value, for environmental well-being, and to build a foundation for lifelong healthy eating.”

“Many parents, who didn’t grow up in homes that served seafood regularly, are nervous to cook it, afraid that it is too challenging for a weeknight meal, or that their kids won’t eat it,” notes Gourmet Magazine executive chef Sara Moulton, who has developed kid-friendly recipes for KidSafe Seafood. “What they don’t realize is that fishcan be cooked in literally minutes and served with a variety of kid-friendly ingredients.”

For complete information about KidSafe Seafood, parents are encouraged to visit www.KidSafeSeafood.org. The website showcases kid-friendly recipes—including healthy homemade fishsticks—and easy cooking tips to help busy parents put seafood on the table every week.

To make its assessments, KidSafe Seafood uses the best available state, federal, and academic studies, supplementing the limited data collected by the FDA, under the guidance of a panel of doctors and scientists. The new Institute of Medicine report also acknowledges the need for better government monitoring and research of the levels and effects of seafood containments. KidSafe Seafood will continually reassess and update its list as new data becomes available.

KidSafe Seafood is a program of SeaWeb, an independent communications-based nonprofit organization focused on advancing ocean conservation and ensuring a healthy seafood supply for the future. The Roy Disney Family Foundation provided funding. Environmental Defense provided extensive scientific research and technical assistance and offers a useful consumption advisory chart on contaminants in seafood at http://www.oceansalive.org/eat.cfm.