Before Buying Fish At Walmart, It's Important To Know This

From sustainability, to rising prices, and a plethora of brands and labeling standards to sift through, food buying choices today can seem ... complicated, to say the least. Specifically, before buying your fish at Walmart for that weeknight baked salmon recipe, you might want to know that the retailer has been criticized for falling short in terms of quality and sustainability standards. While big box retailers like Walmart can be an excellent choice for value shopping, low prices, and big-name brands, historically the calibre of Walmart's seafood has been a bit unclear. 

Though in recent years the household retailer has made strides in vocalizing its sustainable responsibility initiatives and launched sustainability-forward items like its Marine Stewardship Council certified sustainable canned tuna, Walmart has long been a bit behind other grocery store chains like Whole Foods, Safeway, and Aldi, that are generally trusted for their sustainable, quality seafood products. In contrast, Walmart has been the subject of lawsuits contesting the retailer's labeling liability, stated quality, and proposed fishery standards. Greenpeace Sustainable Seafood Consumer Hub rates Walmart as "mediocre" compared to other retailers, taking into account factors like transparency, initiatives, and policy. Overall, while Walmart has low prices, other retailers like Whole Foods have paved the way in sustainable seafood with clear sourcing transparency. For a balance of budget and quality, grocery stores like Aldi are more better know for their responsible seafood sourcing than Walmart is. 

Walmart has been cited as "greenwashing" with its products, particularly when it comes to seafood. In a 2023 lawsuit against the retailer, consumers claimed that Walmart's sustainable seafood package labeling (involving a blue Marine Stewardship Council stamp) was misleading, as the organization is known to certify fishing operations with harmful and inhuman practices. This led to a "debatable definition of 'sustainable' seafood that allows it to achieve its sourcing goals without fundamentally changing its business model," Aaron Van Neste wrote in an op-ed for Civil Eats. In other words, Walmart has been accused as talking the sustainability talk without walking the walk, providing consumers with what the lawsuit cited as "meaningless" promises (via Civil Eats). This type of pushback against Walmart's seafood is nothing new. As far back as 2013, groups like Alaskan fisherman have been debating the retailer on the grounds of how it certifies its fish.  

On the other hand, grocery stores like Whole Foods have been paving the path for years when it comes to seafood quality standards, including clear rating systems in partnership with the Blue Ocean Institute and Monterey Bay Aquarium, as well as labels and signs in its stores and online to signify its processes for auditing, social responsibility, and human rights monitoring. So, all-in-all, for seafood with trusted quality and sustainability standards, you might want to look elsewhere, including other value stores like Costco — where you could possibly even find cheaper fish.