Health and food security
Fish is both healthy and affordable. With our fish products, we provide millions of people around the world with health food. Isn't that great?
The best quality fish
Fish is very healthy. It's full of vitamins and minerals.
We want to supply the best quality fish and fish products to our customers. We invest lots of time and energy to do so. For example, our quality systems are continuously improved. Those systems allow us to guarantee healthy and safe food. Not only close to home, but everywhere around the world.
Health effects of fish
Did you know that most fish (and crustaceans and shellfish) are full of vitamins like B6 and B12 and minerals like iodine, phosphorus and selenium? Furthermore, fish naturally contains protein and fat. Moreover, oily fish, like herring and mackerel, is a rich source of vitamins like D and B2 and contains vitamin A. What could be more healthy?
In addition to vitamins and minerals, (oily) fish has a high level of EPA and DHA, better known as the omega-3 fatty acids. One of the most positive health effects of these substances is that they improve blood cholesterol levels, reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. There are even more health effects, most of which are not so well-known yet.
All the more reason to eat fish
Scientific research has shown even more health effects of omega-3 fatty acids. A few examples:
- Various studies have shown that EPA reduces inflammation and symptoms of auto-immune diseases such as rheumatism, asthma and Crohn’s disease.
- DHA has a positive effect on brain development and maintaining brain function. It also supports good eye function. And reduces symptoms of dry eyes.
- Studies have also shown that there is a much lower incidence of depression in countries where people eat a lot of fish.
Food security visualised
Cornelis Vrolijk contributes daily to the food security of many people in West Africa. This video shows our frozen blue whiting (caught in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean) being smoked in Ivory Coast.
The smoking technique, in which the fish retains its nutritional and taste qualities, is presented in the heart of a market in the south of Abidjan. This video illustrates the importance of fish in the diet of the Ivorians. "It is a very good fish. We eat fish every day. Because fish is very rich compared to meat. That is why we eat it more. It also gives us strength and health."
Our contribution to food security
Millions of people around the world eat the fish that we catch. Especially pelagic fish, like herring, blue whiting, and mackerel, is an affordable source of healthy proteins for people in less affluent countries, like Africa, where they can't afford other animal proteins. That is where some 70% of our pelagic fish go.
Consumption statistics of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) show that the demand for pelagic fish in Asia has doubled, and in Africa even tripled, since the 1980s. In the same period, the consumption level in Europe has remained virtually the same. We are proud that we can offer so many people, especially in countries where the availability of healthy food cannot be taken for granted, meals with our fish. It is countries like those, in particular, where good nutrition directly contributes to better childhood health, healthier adults and a better quality of life.
