Birds Eye change to pollock fish fingers to save cod stocks

But they may soon have to put their faith in pollock.

For cod stocks have suffered a dramatic collapse over the last 20 years as a result of over-fishing.

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Keen to reduce its reliance on the species for its frozen meals, Birds Eye has been looking at alternatives to coat in bread crumbs.

And the company has decided to increasingly use pollock, a white flaky fish in plentiful supply in the seas off Alaska.

Birds Eye already offers an Alaskan pollock fish finger which is covered in batter and comes in packs of eight. It has also introduced haddock fish fingers.

It seems these species will gradually replace the more traditional 100 per cent cod fish finger, which comes in a breadcrumb coating.

We eat approximately 530million fish fingers each year and they have been a favourite with generations of children since the 1950s. Birds Eye sold £80.5million worth of fish fingers in the UK in the year to July 14, which equates to some 80 per cent of the market.

It currently uses 17,000 tons of cod a year for its fish fingers, but it is to replace some 4,000 tons of this, which equates to some two million fish, for a new pollock range with the traditional breadcrumb variety which will be available from September.

Birds Eye stopped using cod from the North Sea as far back as 1999, a move since followed by the major supermarkets.

Since then it and leading stores have switched to the more plentiful supplies taken from the seas around Iceland. However, the shortage of British cod has inevitable led to higher prices.

On the face of it, the switch to pollock could be something of a money-spinner for Birds Eye. For while the fish is cheaper to buy, the cost of the fish fingers will not be any lower for shoppers.

A pack of ten Birds Eye cod fillet fish fingers is £1.64 - 16.4p each. New packs of 12 pollock fish fingers in breadcrumb are £1.99, which is 16.5p per fishfinger.

The company's battered pollock fish fingers cost £1.59, which equates to 19.87p per finger.

However, cod prices will rise over the next five years as it moves from being an everyday commodity fish to something for more special occasions.

Over this period cod fish fingers are likely to become more expensive than pollock and haddock.

The EU has instigated a cut of 14-20 per cent in cod fishing quotas. At the same time they increased them for haddock, monkfish and prawns.

Birds Eye chief executive Martin Glenn explained the move from cod to other species, saying: "We are committed to providing fish from sustainable stocks, using methods that will not harm the marine environment. We have had a clear policy of helping to rebuild and maintaining stock levels for some time now."

However, he made clear the company was operating out of commercial motives. "We think there will be a fish finger franchise for a long time to come," he said.