seafood, followed by taste or flavor (58%), total price (42%), price per pound (37%), nutritional benefits (32%), product appear - ance (29%), preparation time/ease (18%) and sustainability (14%). “These top two factors have grown in importance for shoppers as they shopped for seafood over the past year,” The Power of Seafood states. APPEARANCE MATTERS Freshness and smell/odor, two attributes associated with quality, have the greatest influence over seafood customers’ pur- chase or eating decisions, the report notes. Seventy-six percent of consumers list freshness as having a major impact, while 67% name smell/odor. Next in impact are family will like (63%), how quickly it goes bad (62%) and mercury content (58%). Shoppers diverge when rating fresh and frozen seafood. Seafood consumers were most likely to say that fresh seafood excels over frozen on quality and taste, while frozen surpassed fresh on several attributes related to convenience, cost and informative labeling, The Power of Seafood reports. In addition, 49% of seafood con- sumers say frozen is as good as fresh and 9% list it as better. “With consumers shopping around at multiple retailers to meet their seafood needs, retailers need to strive to capture a greater share of their shoppers’ seafood dollars by promoting their seafood depart- ment or products,” The Power of Seafood states. “Enhancing one’s reputation as a seafood destination among shoppers is an open opportunity in the eyes of many shoppers who do not see anyone in their area filling that void.” Offering high-quality seafood “is a must for anyone selling groceries,” said Russell Zwanka, associate professor of food mar- keting and director of the food marketing program at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. “But high quality does not always mean expensive. It means seafood is at a standard that signifies the customer can trust that the store understands the mission.” Retailers can extend quality by mer- chandising slower moving species in the frozen case, he said. “Unless a store is near
Seafood consumers were most likely to say that fresh seafood excels over frozen on quality and taste.
“Enhancing one’s reputation as a seafood destination among shoppers is an open opportunity in the eyes of many shoppers who do not see anyone in their area filling that void.”
–The Power of Seafood
the coast or a lake, flash frozen seafood also is often better quality and fresher than seafood caught at sea and then kept in refrigeration on the way to the store.” Zwanka said. Flash frozen involves the rapid freezing of seafood at extremely low temperatures shortly after harvesting to better preserve freshness, flavor, texture and nutritional value. ACE THE SCENT TEST Retailers can judge quality and the need for operational improvements with a sniff test, he said. “The case needs cleaning if workers can smell the fish,” Zwanka said. That is important as “customers that smell the fish at the counter will often walk
away, which means someone is not follow- ing safety guidelines for sanitation.” Having a dependable cold chain to ensure products stay fresher longer requires close monitoring and regular visits with supply chain partners, he said. Offer- ing quality seafood also necessitates that product information is accurate to sustain shopper trust, Zwanka said. It is crucial, for instance, that suppli- ers accurately list the regions of origin for selections and that providers of wild caught, farm raised and sustainable sea- food are precise in their labeling, he said. “A trustable source of supply is worth the extra cost versus buying randomly on the market,” Zwanka said.
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