Start with the consumer

Dr Food’s lasting lesson for Australia’s seafood future

A future decided at the dinner table

Australia’s future is usually described through population charts, productivity forecasts and budget projections. Yet part of that future is being shaped every day in a much more familiar place: at the dinner table.

Treasury’s 2026 Intergenerational Report looks ahead to 2065–66 and identifies major transitions including an ageing population and care economy, geopolitical fragmentation, the energy transition and industrial transformation. These are not abstract trends. They affect what food Australians can obtain, what it costs, how confidently it can be chosen and whether our food system helps prevent avoidable ill-health.

At almost the same time, the 10th Annual State of the Science Symposium in Washington, D.C. adopted a striking theme: “Brain Health is National Infrastructure”. Convened by the Seafood Nutrition Partnership’s Scientific Nutrition Advisory Council and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, the event brought food security and brain health into the same conversation.

That is where seafood consumers should be heard. Good nutrition is not merely a private lifestyle choice. It contributes to children’s development, adults’ wellbeing, healthy ageing, workforce participation and demand on health and care services.

Remembering Professor David Hughes — ‘Dr Food’

Professor David Hughes had a rare ability to look beyond production statistics and ask the question that too many food strategies leave until last: what does this mean for the consumer?

His recurring advice was to focus unwaveringly on the consumer. He reminded producers to look beyond the farm gate — or, in our case, beyond the harbour — and understand how people actually shop, cook and eat. He recognised that there is no single consumer: needs vary with income, age, culture, household size, health, confidence and time.

He also understood that trust is cultivated. A romantic story about a farmer or fisher may attract attention, but trust ultimately depends on claims that can be checked, standards that are applied, and products that deliver what the label and menu promise.

That is an especially valuable legacy for seafood. The best way to remember Dr Food is not simply to quote him. It is to apply his consumer-first test to every policy, label, sustainability claim and industry plan.

Seafood across the life course

Seafood can provide high-quality protein and, depending on the species, nutrients including long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, iodine, selenium and vitamin D. These nutrients matter at different stages of life, but the science should be communicated accurately — without miracle claims and without fear-based messages that drive people away from an important food group.

The first 1,000 days

Nutrition before and during pregnancy and in early childhood helps provide the foundations for growth and neurodevelopment. This makes clear, practical seafood advice important for women who are pregnant, planning pregnancy or feeding young children. It also makes species identity essential: people cannot follow species-specific safety advice if a product is sold under an ambiguous umbrella name.

Working life and mental wellbeing

Research continues to examine relationships between seafood, omega-3 intake, cardiovascular health, mood and cognitive function. Consumers deserve the results in plain language, with the strength and limits of the evidence made clear. Seafood should be presented as one useful part of an overall healthy dietary pattern, not as a treatment or a guarantee.

Healthy ageing

As Australia ages, maintaining strength, independence and cognitive health will matter to individuals, families and public budgets. Appealing, nutrient-dense seafood can have a place in home meals, hospitals, community services and aged care. But inclusion on a menu is not enough: the meal must be affordable, recognisable, enjoyable and suited to the person eating it.

Knowledge alone does not put seafood on the plate

Dr Food’s work repeatedly returned to a practical truth: telling people that a food is healthy does not automatically increase consumption. People also need products that fit their lives.

For seafood, that means valuing the whole cabinet — fresh, frozen, canned, smoked and responsibly prepared options — rather than treating a fresh fillet as the only respectable choice. Convenience can be a nutrition enabler. A can of sardines, salmon or tuna; frozen portions; mussels; or a simple seafood meal can be more achievable than a recipe that demands specialist knowledge, time and money.

It also means replacing vague claims such as “good for you” with useful, evidence-based information: what the species is, where it came from, how it was produced or caught, what a realistic portion looks like, how to cook it and what nutritional contribution it can make.

Trust begins with knowing what the seafood is

Country-of-origin information answers an important question: where did it come from? It does not answer another equally basic question: what species is it?

The Australian Fish Names Standard (AS 5300) offers a consistent language for species identity. Yet its application remains voluntary across much of the domestic and imported seafood market, even though consistent naming is fundamental to informed choice, allergy and safety conversations, sustainability assessment, price comparison and protection from substitution.

A consumer should not need detective skills to buy dinner. The name on the label or menu should identify the seafood accurately; origin information should be clear; quantity should be honest; and environmental or provenance claims should be capable of verification.

This is also the central warning behind SCA’s forthcoming book, Sea of Deception: trust cannot be manufactured by attractive language while identity and accountability remain obscure. Transparency is not an inconvenience to good businesses. It is how good businesses are distinguished.

Food security is more than having something to import

Australia relies heavily on imported seafood. Imports provide choice and are an important part of supply, but long-term resilience also requires viable Australian wild-catch and aquaculture production, functioning ports and processing, skilled people, cold chains and fair access to markets.

Geopolitical disruption, climate pressures and changing energy costs can expose fragile supply chains. A serious aquatic-food strategy should therefore connect health, food security, environmental stewardship and domestic capability rather than place them in competing silos.

Marine protection decisions should use sound evidence and consider food production and community consequences alongside conservation objectives. The goal is not to weaken environmental protection. It is to design protection and sustainable production together, recognising that responsibly managed aquatic foods can contribute to nutrition, livelihoods and resilient food systems.

The consumer-first test

Before any government, regulator, retailer, foodservice business or industry body calls a seafood initiative successful, it should answer five questions:

• Can consumers identify the species they are buying?
• Can they afford and readily obtain it?
• Do they have the confidence and practical means to prepare or serve it?
• Can they trust the origin, quantity, safety and sustainability information?
• Are outcomes being measured, reported and improved?

If the answer to one or more is no, the policy may be well intentioned, but it is not yet consumer-centred.

What Australia should do next

SCA believes Australia should:

• develop a national aquatic-food strategy linking nutrition, food security, sustainable production, trade and resilience;
• make consistent use of the Australian Fish Names Standard the norm across retail, foodservice, domestic products and imports;
• pair country-of-origin rules with effective education, monitoring, public reporting and enforcement;
• include appropriate seafood options in maternal health, early-years, hospital, community and aged-care food planning;
• support affordable formats and practical seafood literacy, not only premium fresh products;
• measure what Australians eat across fresh, frozen, canned, prepared and foodservice channels; and
• test every claim and policy against the consumer’s ability to identify, afford, obtain, prepare and trust the food.

A fitting legacy

Professor David Hughes encouraged food industries to stop talking only to themselves. His gift was to make the consumer impossible to ignore.

Australia’s intergenerational challenges give that lesson new urgency. If brain health is national infrastructure, then trustworthy access to nutritious food is part of its foundation. Seafood can make a valuable contribution — from early development to healthy ageing — but only if policy moves beyond production totals and promotional slogans to the lived reality of the person choosing the meal.

Start with the consumer. Tell them what the seafood really is. Make the evidence understandable. Make good choices achievable. Measure whether the system works. That would be a worthy way to remember Dr Food — and a practical way to build a healthier, more resilient Australia.

---

Do you like this blog?

Yes