Healthy Fish Choices Grocery Store Pilot Project - PowerPoint

							               Healthy Fish Choices
               Grocery Store
               Pilot Project
Participating Stores:
Mega Foods Tumwater, Bayview Thriftway, Ralph’s
Thriftway, and Olympia Foods Co-ops.
Rachel Donnette
Thurston County Public Health
Liz Carr & Dave McBride
WA Department of Health
Denise LaFlamme
WA Department of Health
Survey Development and Evaluation
                      Outline
• What is a fish advisory?
• Types of fish advisories in Washington State
• DOH monitoring which supports this project
   – Analysis of Chemical Contaminant Levels in Store-
     Bought Fish (WA)
   – Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System
     (BRFSS)
• Overview of the Healthy Fish Choices Pilot Project
  – Social Marketing Approach
• Product line
• Primary sources of data for the fish list
• How we plan to evaluate the pilot
   – Survey, we invite your input.
         What is a fish advisory?
Issue advice about safe fish consumption
   Primarily for women who are pregnant, plan to become
   pregnant, nursing mothers and young children or high-end
   consumers (for example: Tribes, API communities).

Eat Fish, Be Smart, Choose Wisely
   – Emphasize the health benefits gained from eating fish
   – Balance benefits with the risks, importance of choosing fish
     with lower contaminant levels
   – Provide healthy hints: How to cook and prepare fish to
     reduce exposure
   – Emphasize importance of eating a variety of fish

Issue meal limits
Species specific advice –
     Main drivers for are methylmercury and PCBs
 Fish Advisories in Washington
Two Types of Advisories
Waterbody Specific
  Recreational fish advisories. Currently there are 10
  advisories statewide which includes Puget Sound.

Statewide Fish Consumption Advisory for Mercury
Commercial Species:
  Avoid shark, swordfish, tilefish, king mackerel, marlin &
  tuna steaks
  Canned tuna – choose light not white.
Freshwater Species:
  Smallmouth and largemouth freshwater bass (6/03).
                DOH Monitoring
One thing we know:
The public is confused about which fish are safe to eat.

What we didn’t know:
How much fish the public was really eating
Where were they consuming these fish from?
What level of contaminants are in these fish?

Our Goal:
To provide info that balances the known health benefits of
fish with the risks at point of purchase.

Two studies that supported reaching our goal:
Analysis of Chemical Contaminant Levels in Store-Bought Fish (WA)
Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System (BRFSS)
Analysis of Chemical Contaminant Levels in
 Store-Bought Fish from Washington State
             Dave McBride, MS Jim VanDerslice, PhD
                   Denise Laflamme, MS, MPH
                Asnake Hailu, Dr PH Liz Carr, MS



 Species chosen based on frequency of
 consumption and expected contaminant levels

   Catfish              Red Snapper
   Cod                  Salmon
   Flounder             Tuna (canned white & light)
   Halibut              Tuna steaks
   Pollack
           Study Objectives

• To characterize levels of mercury and
  PCBs in canned tuna and fresh fish sold in
  grocery stores

  – To estimate contaminant levels in the most
    frequently consumed fish in Washington State
  – To identify fish with lower levels for making
    recommendations to consumers

• Expanded analysis to include PBDEs
Location of Grocery Stores
     Behavioral Risk Factor
  Surveillance System (BRFFS)
• Nationwide ongoing telephone survey
  sponsored by CDC
• Collects information about health behaviors,
  attitudes and knowledge
• Population based random selection of non-
  institutionalized adults ≥ 18 years
• Includes core questions asked by all states,
  optional questions for states to choose from, and
  state-developed questions
• WA added fish consumption questions in 2002,
  2004, and 2005
       BRFSS Results (2004)
 Consumption of different types of fish
Consumption        % who ate fish in past Mean times per
                   30 days (all           month
                   participants) (95% CI) (consumers) (95%
                                          CI)
Any fish           87.6% (86.6-88.7)     6.46 (6.25-6.66)
Store-bought       74.0% (72.6-75.3)     4.56 (4.41-4.71)
fish
Sport-caught       16.8% (15.6-17.9)     2.88 (2.48-3.27)
fish
Canned tuna        56.5% (55.0-58.0)     3.27 (3.08-3.45)
All 3 fish types   7.6% (6.8-8.4)        10.08 (9.32-10.83)
Healthy Fish Choices Project
Goal:
To highlight
the healthy choices
and the benefits.
Mention fish
to avoid, but not
have the warning be
the focus, and have
minimal impact on
Healthy Choice fish sales.
    Social Marketing Approach

Identify the benefits and barriers to a behavior change
Design a strategy with behavior change tools- prompts.
“Look for the Healthy Choice Symbol”
“Three Steps to a Healthier Heart and Brain”
Pilot the strategy with a small segment of a community
Evaluate the impact of the program once it has been
implemented.

  Doug McKenzie-Mohr, Ph.D. Environmental Psychologist
        Benefits and Barriers
Prior to developing the materials:
1) Internally, we identified the benefits
and barriers that the stores may have by
providing this information

2) Met with the store managers and
identified the „actual‟ benefits and barriers
to the stores
         Benefits and Barriers
Unexpected outcomes:
Stores were positive – they wanted to provide
info – they get a lot of ?s
Stores wanted to be proactive and wanted this
to be a voluntary effort. Prop 65 – California has
mandated that seafood counters have
information about mercury risks.
Stores requested info about fish choices that
protect fish populations and habitat.
Graphic Artist: Barb McConkey, Inform Design
      Primary Sources of Data
1) DOH- Office of Environmental Health Assessments.
   2005. Analysis of Chemical Contaminant Levels in
   Store-Bought Fish from Washington State.

2) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the
   U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 2001 (updated
   2006). Mercury Levels in Commercial Fish and Shellfish.

3) U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food
   Safety and Applied Nutrition, Office of Seafood. 2004
   (updated 2006). Mercury Concentrations in Fish: FDA
   Monitoring Program (1990-2004).

4) Hawaii Department of Health, Mercury Levels in
   Hawaiian Commercial Fish. 2004.
    Evaluation of Materials
Survey
Please see handout. We invite your input.

We will be surveying 75 participants.
• 25 Ralph‟s Thriftway
• 25 Bayview Thriftway
• 25 Mega Foods
Summary –
We would like to share these materials
- We invite your comments
- If you would like to use them and put
your logo on them - great.

Most important is a clear,
cconsistent, science based message in
region 10 which provides fish
consumption advice that balances the
benefits with the risks.