Clear advice on how to encourage young people to choose seafood
These are the very concrete recommendations from Nofima’s researchers to the seafood industry and the Norwegian authorities, who want young consumers to eat more fish and seafood.
The report “Young consumers and seafood consumption: Experience, trust and information – new insights into young consumers and seafood” has recently been delivered to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries.
Have asked 1,000 young consumers
In the report, the researchers have compiled results from previous research on young people and seafood and, in addition, conducted a survey of 1,000 young consumers in Norway. Based on this, Nofima’s market researchers conclude with very concrete and well-founded recommendations on what it will take to get young people to take the bait – seafood.
Data from the Norwegian Seafood Council shows that Norwegian young people are slowly coming around when it comes to getting more of this healthy seafood into their diets. But there is still a long way to go before the official dietary recommendations are met.
For the report, researchers Florent Govaerts, Kamilla Bergsnev, Martine Meland, Morten Heide and Themis Altintzoglou have compiled an overview of national initiatives to increase seafood consumption and explore how information, trust, sustainability labelling and early experiences influence young consumers’ seafood choices.
Clear gaps
“The report shows a clear gap between consumers’ intentions and their actual behaviour. Consumers want to eat more seafood and make more sustainable choices, but there are barriers that stop them from doing so,” says researcher Florent Govaerts.
He lists some of the main barriers:
“Young consumers believe seafood is too expensive, they do not think it tastes or smells good, and finding fish bones is a problem. They feel they lack the skills needed to prepare seafood, and habits, time pressure, and competition from other products also hold them back.”
The report also shows large differences between intention and action when it comes to sustainability:
“Young people say that sustainability is important, but this does not show in practice. Sustainability loses out to price, taste preferences and habits at the actual moment of purchase. Consumers prioritise other considerations once they are in the shop. And sustainability labels such as the MSC are often overlooked in real purchase situations,” says Florent Govaerts.
The report also highlights the importance of early food experiences with family and friends in childhood and at school, as such experiences shape our associations with seafood and influence future choices.
The researchers are clear that, in order to reverse the downward trend in seafood consumption, especially among young adults, targeted measures are needed that address both the emotional and practical barriers to increased seafood consumption identified in the project, which has been ongoing for several years.
A natural and simple choice
These are the researchers’ recommendations – in slightly abbreviated form:
Recommendations to the seafood industry and retail trade
Make seafood a natural and simple choice in a busy everyday life.
- Price is the biggest barrier for young adults. Experience from campaigns in the retail sector in 2025 showed that price reductions on salmon and trout led to a sales increase of up to 249 percent. The industry should consider more stable low-price concepts rather than only short campaign periods, in order to establish lasting habits.
- Since smell and bones are significant barriers, the industry should develop products that are guaranteed to be bone-free and that do not have a “strong” smell. Experiments show that using positive verbal descriptions such as “scent of the sea” can increase a product’s appeal compared with neutral information.
- Consumers have higher trust in labels they are already familiar with, and this strongly influences their choices. General familiarity with food labels seems to play a central role in how information is perceived and used.
Recommendations to the authorities
The authorities play a key role as framework-setter and guarantor of trust.
- Make use of institutional trust: Young consumers have high trust in public authorities, researchers and health professionals. The authorities should support communication strategies where official advice and national guarantees for sustainability are actively used to strengthen trust in Norwegian seafood.
- Early exposure: There is a documented connection between positive childhood experiences and fish consumption in adulthood. Measures that stimulate practical cooking, fishing trips and knowledge about the sea at an early age build “green trust” and lasting eating habits.
- Support initiatives that make seafood even more attractive. By promoting fish as an easy, tasty and tempting everyday choice, it becomes easier for people to choose seafood – not just as a quick alternative to meat, but as an exciting food experience. A more experience-rich, pleasure-oriented approach may be even more effective than the traditional health arguments.
Communication strategy
To reach young people, information must be shared where they are.
- Social media and influencers: Although trust in social media among young people is lower than in experts, these are the most used channels for inspiration. Cooperation with influencers – as the Norwegian Seafood Council’s consumer initiative Godfisk already does with, for example, Emilie Voe Nereng or Erling Braut Haaland – is effective in normalising seafood as everyday food.
- Concrete sustainability: The term “good for the environment” is perceived as more concrete and engaging than the abstract word “sustainability”. Communication should therefore be linked to concrete advantages such as Norwegian origin, natural raw materials and environmentally friendly harvesting.
Scientific method
The study is based on an online survey with both open and closed questions among 1,000 young adults in Norway between 18 and 35 years of age.
The participants first answered questions about how often they eat different types of fish, what motivates them to eat or not to eat fish, which information sources they use and trust, and how they perceive sustainability and environmental claims related to seafood.
They then took part in a choice experiment: They were repeatedly shown different variants of cod fillet that varied in product form (plain or seasoned), sustainability information (for example labelling from the MSC or the Norwegian Food Safety Authority) and a possible smell message (“Scent of the sea”). In each round they had to choose the variant they would most like to buy.
By analysing these choices, the researchers can see which product characteristics matter most to young consumers.
The answers to the closed questions were analysed statistically to reveal patterns and differences between groups, while the open free-text responses were systematised using artificial intelligence to capture the most important themes and avoid the researchers’ own expectations guiding the categorisation.
