At Birds Eye, we have An Eye For Good™ that’s part of everything we do. Birds Eye is committed to producing quality food locally to support farmers, communities, the earth and families across Australia and New Zealand. As a brand, we are acting to ensure that we can continue to source ingredients to create our delicious products that consumers love and trust, for many years to come.
We have a longstanding partnership with Australian farmers and strive to source locally in Tasmania and around Australia. Additionally, we only source from Marine Stewardship Council-certified sustainable fisheries for our Hoki and Southern Blue Whiting to help preserve fish stocks for future generations.
Meet Stuart from North West Tasmania, a multi-generational vegetable farmer for Birds Eye Australia.
90% of our Tasmanian veggies (Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussell Sprouts, Onions, Beans, Peas and Carrots) are grown on average, within 90km of where they’re produced into products you love and trust.
Our Agricultural Services team work closely with our Australian farmers providing crop advice and looking for innovative ways to help maximise crop yields and enhance the sustainability of our growers’ operations.
At Birds Eye we process crops that the fresh markets will not accept due to minor cosmetic defects that render them unsuitable. We source around 2500T of carrots and 2000T of onions per year, that would normally go to stockfeed. This process contributes to a reduction in food waste.
In addition, in 2012 we invested in a co-generation plant at our Ulverstone facility in Tasmania (where Birds Eye Potato products are made), this resulted in total greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 46% upon its installation.
We use strip-till cultivation on all our Broccoli crops, this reduces the amount of soil impacted by cultivation by about one-third when compared with traditional methods of cultivation. Therefore, reducing energy usage in form of diesel and reduces moisture loss from the soil.
Birds Eye takes pride from seed to plate sourcing high quality Australian vegetables and creating delicious products to ensure your meal is a tasty one!
With their optimal growing conditions and climates, we believe Tasmanian farms to be the ideal places to source our vegetables. Tasmania's location and surrounding waters provide moderate temperatures, good rainfall and fertile soil, as well as warm days and cool nights, allowing us to produce high-quality vegetables year-round.
Additionally, we source from farms along the east coast of Australia, which offer a diverse range of climates that provide great growing conditions and yields for our veggies.
The entire Birds Eye Oven Bake range is processed at a facility in Kelso, New South Wales which has been creating your favourite fish products.
Birds Eye is committed to reducing waste and aiming for zero waste to landfill. Across all our manufacturing sites, less than 1% of waste produced is sent to landfill, with 99% being reused, repurposed, recycled or recovered.
Birds Eye is committed to respecting the earth’s resources across the sea, land and air.
At Birds Eye, our Hoki and Southern Blue Whiting is responsibly caught to preserve and maintain healthy fish stocks.
This includes a focus on continuous improvement, prioritising sourcing from credible, independently certified programs, removing products from our supply chains that do not align with our values and actively promoting change in supply chains where there is currently limited demand for responsibly sourced seafood.
Therefore, we are proud to say that 100% of our Hoki and Southern Blue Whiting is Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified, caught in the oceans of New Zealand and Australia.
Hoki is one of the world's most popular white fish and the winter period in New Zealand is known as Hoki season, with most of the annual quota for Hoki being caught from June to September. In 1986, New Zealand was the first country to establish a Quota Management System where the total annual catch permitted in New Zealand's waters is less than 10% of the adult Hoki population.
Southern Blue Whiting is often found in the Southern Ocean and generally caught at depths of 70m to 800m. Our MSC-certified Southern Blue Whiting is fished in the New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone to the south and southeast of New Zealand’s South Island.
To obtain MSC certification and ensure the standard is robust and transparent, fisheries undergo rigorous assessments by independent, scientific third-party conformity assessment bodies. The MSC Fisheries Standard is based on the current understanding of international fisheries best practice science and management and is regularly reviewed and developed with input from scientists, the fishing industry and conservation groups.
A fishery can achieve MSC certification by meeting the following three core principles:
Sustainable Fish Stocks: Fishing must be at a level that ensures it can continue indefinitely and the fish population can remain productive and healthy.
Minimising Environmental Impact: Fishing activity must be managed carefully to ensure that other species and habitats within the ecosystem remain healthy.
Effective Fisheries Management: The fishery must comply with relevant laws and be able to adapt to changing requirements.
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What is the MSC?The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international non-profit on a mission to end overfishing by setting standards for sustainable fishing and seafood supply chain assurance. It is committed to values of independence, transparency, impartiality, and stakeholder participation. More information at https://www.msc.org
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Why is MSC certification the best standard for sustainable seafood?
MSC is on a mission to end overfishing by setting standards for sustainable fishing and seafood supply chain assurance.
You can find sustainable seafood by looking for the MSC blue fish tick label meaning the seafood has been caught in the wild by an MSC certified sustainable fishery. The MSC's certification process is rigorous and ensures that fish are caught at levels that allow fish populations and the ecosystems on which they depend to remain healthy and productive for the future.
More information at https://www.msc.org
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What does being MSC Certified mean?
Being MSC-certified means that a fishery or supply chain company has met the MSC standards. The MSC remains independent and impartial during assessments, with third-party auditors accredited to certify fisheries and supply chain companies to the relevant MSC standard.
The MSC Fisheries Standard is based on the current understanding of international fisheries best practice science and management and is regularly reviewed and developed with input from scientists, the fishing industry and conservation groups. A fishery can achieve MSC certification by meeting the following three core principles:
Sustainable Fish Stocks: Fishing must be at a level that ensures it can continue indefinitely and the fish population can remain productive and healthy.
Minimising Environmental Impact: Fishing activity must be managed carefully to ensure that other species and habitats within the ecosystem remain healthy.
Effective Fisheries Management: The fishery must comply with relevant laws and be able to adapt to changing requirements.
Simplot the manufacturer of Birds Eye was a founding member and is a long-time supporter of the REDcycle Program which was aimed at offering consumers a simple way to recycle their soft plastic packaging rather than sending it to landfill. As such, we are disappointed by REDcycle’s announcement in November 2022 to pause the program.
Given REDcycle has indicated the program is temporarily on pause we are assessing if it is appropriate to make changes to the REDcycle labelling or Australasian Recycling Label on our IandJ products, which currently instructs people to return soft plastics to the store.
However, until an alternate solution is available, consumers are encouraged to put their soft plastics in their home rubbish bin, not in kerbside recycling bins (unless the Curby or NPRS trial is available in your area) as it is not recyclable in that system.
Finding long-term solutions that continue to advance recycling initiatives and help us to meet Australia’s National Packaging Targets will require the combined efforts of government, industry, NGOs, packaging manufacturers, waste recovery and recycling industries.
Simplot and its brands continue to support and work to advance these efforts.