Yesterday (11/9/07) the NOAA Fisheries Service announced that US seafood
consumption has risen for the third straight year in 2004 as Americans ate
a record 16.6 pounds of fish and shellfish per person.
This is the third year in a row that U.S. per capita seafood consumption
has increased. The 2004 figure is up from 16.3 pounds per person in 2003,
an increase of two percent. In 2001 the rate was 14.8 pounds per person,
and in 2002 it was 15.6 pounds per person. "Seafood is a safe and healthy
food choice for all Americans and, as this trend shows, the demand keeps
rising," said Bill Hogarth, director of the NOAA Fisheries Service. "The
administration's National Offshore Aquaculture bill is one way to meet
this demand with seafood that is either harvested or grown right here in
the United States."
Of the total 16.6 pounds consumed per person, a record 11.8 pounds were
fresh and frozen finfish and shellfish, up 0.4 pounds from last year.
Canned seafood consumption dropped 0.1 pounds to 4.5 pounds per capita.
These rates reflect a continuing trend toward fresh and frozen seafood
consumption. In 2000, Americans consumed 10.2 pounds of fresh and frozen
seafood and 4.7 pounds of canned seafood per capita. Shrimp continues to
be a favorite among American seafood eaters. A record 4.2 pounds of shrimp
were consumed per person last year, up 0.2 pounds from 2003. Another
record figure was consumption of fillets and steaks, up 0.3 pounds to 4.6
pounds per person. Conversely, canned tuna consumption fell 0.1 pounds to
3.3 pounds per person. A total of 4.8 billion pounds of seafood was
consumed in the U.S. in 2004.
A NOAA fact sheet on 2004 seafood consumption statistics features:
- US annual per capita consumption seafood and shellfish pounds of edible
meat
- US annual per capita consumption of canned fishery products, pounds
- US annual per capita consumption of certain fishery items, pounds
Source:
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/pdf/seafood-consumption11-09-2005.pdf
The NOAA Fisheries Service's calculation of per capita consumption is
based on a "disappearance" model. The total U.S. supply is calculated as
the sum of imports and landings minus exports, converted to edible weight.
This total is divided by the total U.S. population to estimate per capita
consumption.
Additional agency data will be officially released next week in the 2004
edition of NOAA's "Fisheries of the United States" which will either be
available at: http://www.st.nmfs.gov/st1/index.html or
http://www.st.nmfs.gov/st1/publications.html .
So...what are the most popular species that are consumed in the U.S.? The
National Fisheries Institute (in cooperation with Howard Johnson, H.M.
Johnson & Associates) annually features the top ten US per capita
consumption by species in pounds. The latest figures show:
SPECIES POUNDS
Shrimp 4.2
Canned Tuna 3.3
Salmon 2.154
Pollock 1.277
Catfish 1.091
Tilapia .696
Crab .626
Cod .603
Clams .471
Flatfish .332
To view the "Top 10 U.S. Consumption by Species Chart" trends from
1990-2004, visit the NFI site:
http://www.aboutseafood.com/media/top_10.cfm
**********
Pamela Tom
University of California
Sea Grant Extension Program
Web: Seafood Network Information Center http://seafood.ucdavis.edu
Seafood HACCP Mailing List Archive of Messages:
http://listproc.ucdavis.edu/archives/seafood/
Search the archive by using the search engine at: http://www.ucdavis.edu
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