Sustainable Seafood
Our chefs strive to serve only seafood species that are rated Best Choice or Good Alternative according to Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch® guidelines for commercial buyers.
Bon Appétit’s commitment to sustainable seafood sourcing remains second to none.
Jennifer Dianto Kemmerly, Director of Seafood Watch
Poster for our Save Seafood Tour
In 2002, we partnered with Monterey Bay Aquarium and learned about an internal guide they had created to steer seafood choices toward sustainable fisheries — what would later become the world-renowned Seafood Watch® program. Spurred by learning from the Aquarium about overfishing and ocean degradation, we began a nationwide rollout of Seafood Watch in 2002 and made adherence a non-negotiable food standard in 2004 for all our fresh and frozen seafood purchases. We were the first food service company to address the problems with seafood, and we made the most comprehensive commitment to sustainable seafood of any national restaurant or food company to date.
After adopting the Seafood Watch standards as our own, we co-sponsored the making of the Emmy-nominated documentary Farming the Seas and, together with Seafood Watch, created the Save Seafood Tour to educate people about the issues surrounding seafood and activate them to make sustainable choices.
Supporting sustainable seafood has become more than a food standard. It is part of the Bon Appétit culture — part of who we are.