North Beach fish and chips, a new takeaway located only metres from the sea and sand is the first chippie in Bridlington, Yorkshire, to gain Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification.

Owner Barry Camfield spotted the site on the beachfront as a great opportunity for a new fish and chip shop and his hard work in setting up the business has paid off.

The key achievement for North Beach fish and chips being it has been awarded MSC Chain of Custody certification; meaning all customers can now enjoy tasty fish and chips safe in the knowledge they are certified and traceable back to sustainable, certified fisheries.

Barry explains he was confident of his plans for the new beachfront takeaway including the policy for sourcing fish sustainably.

"In the early stages of setting up North Beach Fish and Chips I attended the (National Federation of Fish Friers), NFFF three-day training course in Leeds November 2014. Whilst on the training course the MSC was brought to my attention – I was inspired by their work to help maintain healthy oceans, protecting good fish stocks for the future through their certified fisheries and certification program.

It’s a great way to enable businesses to offer the assurance of certified sustainable fish and seafood to customers. I feel the MSC is such an important organization for our new fish and chip shop to be linked to.

The following February I contacted Rachel Dacre at the MSC, enquiring about how best to get my takeaway in Bridlington certified.”

Getting Certified

"In preparation for the new shop opening in March 2015, I worked towards and achieved a ‘five’ from the local health and hygiene authority, and afterwards applied for the MSC Chain of Custody certification.”

"I then contacted Ruth Westcott, Group Manager at myROCGroup.co.uk, who was able to offer me all the information needed for my staff and I to understand the certified supply chain and the requirements, making the process very simple and easy to achieve certification.

It’s really important to my new takeaway business to only offer and sell to my customers, fish that have been responsibly sourced from a sustainable fishery. This approach makes sense for the future of the whole industry and future generations.

I was so proud to become the first fish and chip shop in Bridlington to achieve MSC certification and display the distinctive blue, MSC ecolabel. This raised the profile and local awareness of North Beach fish and chips, providing the opportunity to spread the ‘certified sustainable’ message to customers when asked what the MSC ecolabel stands for.

The sustainable seafood message – at the seaside

My digital menu displays are a great format for displaying information about the ecolabel and the MSC. It’s a focus point for customers, and often prompts questions, which we gladly answer!

I firmly believe, as North Beach is now an MSC certified fish and chip shop, joining many other leading chippies across the country, we are in an influential position and well-placed to promote the MSC’s sustainable seafood program to our customers. I’m very proud of North Beach’s MSC certification!

Since the NFFF introduced me to the MSC certification program we have now applied for and been granted our NFFF Quality Award. So we are now looking forward to serving our customers tasty and certified sustainable fish and chips at our beachside takeaway, in the sunshine!”

Additionally, and by recommendation through the NFFF, Barry’s efforts to set up and prepare for his beachside chippie were recorded by the BBC TV’s Inside Out productions; providing viewers an insight into establishing an independent UK fish and chip business.

George Clark, MSC UK Commercial Manager, commended Barry and his team on their recent success. "It’s rewarding to see new fish and chip shop owners so passionate about their industry and the importance of certified sustainable fish – Barry is a great inspiration! Now visitors to Bridlington’s North Beach can enjoy tasty and sustainable fish and chips - actually on the beach!”