D4.2 – Good Practice Recommendation

The VeriFish Good Practice recommendation is intended as a practical tool for actors involved in seafood communication and marketing, supporting the design of campaigns that engage consumers more effectively. This recommendation is published as a low-level, voluntary European standard which will be distributed by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) as a CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA). The CWA is designed to help the seafood industry communicate with consumers about their products, and the aim is to support an increase in sustainable seafood consumption. This report (D4.2 – “Good Practice Recommendation”) is linked to task 4.2 – “CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA)” within VeriFish and is based on VeriFish D4.1 – “Initial Recommendation for how to efficiently communicate to consumers about seafood”, which drew on inputs and experiences from WP2 and WP3, as well as existing literature and established knowledge on the issue. The content of this document describes the outcome of the CWA process after extensive stakeholder consultation, hearing periods, and a consensus meeting. The content of this deliverable (from Table of Content and onwards) was sent to the CWA secretariat (Standard Norway) for publication in April 2026, and unless minor editorial changes are made, reflects what the content of the officially published CWA will be. Through CEN, the recommendations will be published as a voluntary European standard, which may serve as a foundation for future implementations, Good Practice recommendations or higher-level standards (e.g. CEN or ISO). The details around the CWA process are described in D4.3 – “Documentation of the consensus-driven CWA process”. Following the introduction, this report is structured in four chapters: 1 Scope, 2 Terms and definitions, 3 General principles for seafood marketing, and 4 Recommendations for seafood marketing. Chapter 3 General principles for seafood marketing,sets out principles for effective seafood marketing by emphasizing consumer segmentation (consumer types), product differentiation (seafood types), and contextual communication. The chapter highlights the importance of aligning communication with everyday consumer needs, values and decision-making processes. It also underscores the growing role of digital tools and media channels. Chapter 4 Recommendations for seafood marketing, translates the general principles into recommendations for seafood marketing. It stresses the importance of defining target audiences and adapting messages to appropriate channels and formats. The chapter also have a recommendations table which outlines what information to highlight for different consumer and seafood type combinations. Finally, it addresses potential and limitations of using Artificial Intelligence as a support tool, emphasizing accuracy and regulatory compliance. Chapter 4 is accompanied by Annex A.1 and A.2, which provides two examples on how the recommendations table (Table 1) can be used by seafood companies. Additionally, Annex B presents an example of how Large Language Models can be used as an assisting tool in targeted seafood campaigns.