Food giants Sodexo and Costco have both committed to improve the sustainability of their seafood.

Sodexo, the $21 billion food service company, has announced a goal for all its contracted seafood to be certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) or the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) by 2015.

Under the plan, Sodexo will review all wild caught and farm raised seafood purchases and set short, medium and long-term goals with its contracted seafood vendors.

The target is part of Sodexo’s Better Tomorrow sustainability plan. The Better Tomorrow Plan makes 14 commitments to the environment, health, wellness and community support.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace has announced that after eight months of pressure, the world’s ninth-largest retailer has agreed to remove over a dozen seafood items from sale until the company can find an MSC-certified option. Costco will place a hold on selling Atlantic cod, Atlantic halibut, bluefin tuna, Chilean sea bass, Greenland halibut, grouper, monkfish, orange roughy, redfish, shark, swordfish, skates and rays.

Costco is also in the process of shifting towards more sustainable sources of tuna for fresh, frozen and canned varieties of the fish, Greenpeace said.

Costco will work with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to examine its remaining wild-caught species and determine the best way of moving to sustainable alternatives, Greenpeace said.

Costco and WWF have had a partnership since July of last year. Its first goal was to gauge the adherence of Thai-based shrimp farmers to draft standards drawn up by the Shrimp Aquaculture Dialogue, WWF said, and then to develop a strategy to guide those suppliers to full compliance. (Source: Environmentalleader.com, Photo: Thomas Quine)