Wild Alaska pollock drives sustainability, affordability in seafood

Wild-caught Alaska pollock is among the most sustainable protein sources on the market. It’s also more affordable than other similar protein sources, like cod or haddock.

Yet, it’s underutilized, especially in the U.S. market where it’s commonly offered in food service and appears in such products as McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish.

“A lot of people eat a lot of pollock, but they don’t know about it,” Einar Gustafsson, CEO of American Seafoods, explained. “People have been eating [McDonald’s] Filet-O-Fish for years and a lot of fish sandwiches, for example. That’s virtually all Alaska pollock.”

Similarly, fish sticks and other products known by consumers as “mild whitefish” are often wild Alaksa pollock, he added.

Per Rasmus Soerensen, chief commercial officer of American Seafoods, wild Alaska pollock is preferred by quick-service and fast-casual restaurants in the U.S. because the way it’s packed — as rectangular “filet blocks” — makes it “quite easy to portion.”

 Alaska pollock is also a “value protein,” according to Gustafsson.

“Within the seafood industry, Alaska pollock is a value protein,” he said. “It is a very reasonably priced protein compared to other products, for example, cod, haddock or another mild whitefish.”

American Seafoods is the world’s largest processor of wild Alaska pollock. Its fleet of fishing vessels operate in sustainable fisheries in the Bering Sea and the North Pacific Ocean, including the U.S. Wild Alaska Pollock Fishery — the second largest wild whitefish fishery in the world.

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Alaska pollock benefits from Alaska’s conservative approach to fishery management. Effective fishery management prevents overfishing — an issue that plagues more than a third (37%) of fish stocks in 2024, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

“In the case of wild Alaska pollock, it leaves by far the smallest environmental impact on our surroundings,” Soerensen said.

Pollock averages 1.4 kilograms CO₂ (carbon dioxide) equivalent for every kilogram of finished product, compared to tofu’s CO2 equivalent of 2.7 kilograms. It’s also lower than chicken (5.9 kilograms), pork (7.0 kilograms) or beef (59.4 kilograms). Soerensen attributed Alaska pollock’s low carbon footprint to the efficiency of its vessels and packing and shipping methods, as well as “very little waste in the supply chain.”

Maximizing market potential

Increasing consumer awareness of Alaska pollock, versus its reputation as “mild whitefish,” can open up “tremendous opportunity” for the species in the U.S. market, Rasmus said, especially in the freezer aisle, which saw a spike in interest during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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“Before the pandemic, [the frozen aisle] was kind of the dead zone in the supermarket,” he said. “But the frozen aisle saw a lot more traffic during the pandemic years. And a lot of that traffic has stuck around.”

Importantly, pollock faces a key challenge in product development: its small size. According to Gustafsson, the size of the pollock typically caps at around 600 grams, producing a filet that is “quite small and scrawny.” Outside of “breaded and coated” applications, some pollock-based product innovations include appetizers and fish tacos, he added.

In the U.S., Soerensen pointed to the health and fitness space as a potential market opportunity for pollock, thanks to the fish’s high protein content and the ability to create uniformly portioned products that meet the needs of precision nutrition.

In addition, Gustafsson highlighted another “huge opportunity” for pollock in the U.S. marketplace: surimi-based applications.

Surimi is a concentrated protein paste made from wild-caught whitefish. In the U.S., surimi has been closely associated with “imitation crab.” In other parts of the world, such as Asia and Europe, surimi is “a whole category of itself” known as “surimi seafood,” Soerensen explained.

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“In Japan, for instance, more than 1,500 different types of retail consumer products contain surimi as the key raw material,” he said.

Surimi is white, odorless and tasteless, but high in protein, offering functionality in the form of “bounciness,” Soerensen said. While it’s often used in seafood products, in certain regions, such as Korea and South Korea, it’s used in other applications, like bread and bakery products.