Good Fish Guide App that helps makes sustainable fish choices simple gets design award

The Marine Conservation Society’s (MCS) Good Fish Guide app is a 2016 Gold winner in the prestigious London Design Awards, which recognise creativity and leading design across a range of categories.

The Good Fish Guide app aims to help consumers make environmentally sound seafood choices by listing fish alongside their MCS Fish to Eat or Fish to Avoid rating – red, green or amber (eat only occasionally).

With funding from the UK’s largest food and support services firm, Compass Group UK and Ireland, MCS worked with Brighton-based Brightec, a mobile app development company to build a version of their web based and paper pocket guide.

The brief was to create an App that would help customers make informed decisions when choosing fish at a restaurant, or at the fish counter in the local supermarket. The App would need to interact with a large and complex dataset but still look like a simple, user-friendly, ethical ‘pocket guide’ consumer app.

Andy Ferrett, Managing Director of Brightec, said: “It is always our pleasure to work with value driven organisations such as the Marine Conservation Society. We believe the ‘Good Fish Guide’ app is not just an excellent iOS & Android app but also an important tool in the fight for sustainability.”

Richard Harrington, MCS Head of Communications said: “There’s so much to choosing sustainable fish than just ratings. The Brightec-produced App boasts regular contributions of new seafood recipes from top chefs and celebrities which are displayed so the fish chosen are always in season and rated 1-3. There’s also a size guide to help people spot immature fish that are being sold before they’ve had a chance to breed. And information on labelling will help you identify the best eco-labels for fish and the information retailers and fishmongers need to be supplying to allow consumers to make informed choices. We’re delighted how the app looks and are thrilled that as developers, Brightec have been recognised.”

The App uses a simple traffic light system providing users with an at-a-glance guide to which fish species are at risk and should be avoided – based on present fish sustainability. Diners can also find restaurants that claim to have great sustainable credentials on an easy to use map where MCS reveals what they think about the eatery’s sustainability along with a rating from Fish2fork, the sustainable seafood restaurant ratings website.

Duncan Gray, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Compass Group UK & Ireland, said: “When it comes to seafood we know that a great dish must be both delicious and sustainable. We promise not to serve fish from the MSC fish to avoid list and buy more sustainable seafood every year. Funding this app will help keep consumers informed about how to eat great seafood ethically and we’re delighted to have been able to help support it.”

MCS sustainable seafood work is supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery. Clara Govier, Head of Charities at People’s Postcode Lottery said “It is great to see a whole range of new resources giving people the power to make their own choices on which seafood to eat. The Good Fish Guide App is really exciting, giving instant advice on what to eat and how to cook it, whether you’re shopping for the family in the supermarket or looking for a place to eat out. I’m delighted that players of People’s Postcode Lottery are able to support this initiative.”

The app has received praise from all quarters, including the influential Creative Review.

The Good Fish Guide App is free on both iphone and android at www.goodfishguide.org.

Find out more about the Marine Conservation Society at www.mcsuk.org.