Traceability of fish and seafood

Most of Bar Harbor® Fish* and Seafood is MSC® Certified sustainably harvested and through this certification the fish and seafood can be traced back to a particular fishery in the world’s oceans, and in many cases to the specific boat that caught it!

The ocean is parceled into FAO areas. Our Atlantic Herring and Sardines come from  FAO 27. Our Clams come from FAO 21 – 31. And our Alaskan Salmon and Pollock come from FAO 67. 

*Currently the North Atlantic Mackerel fishery is considered over-fished and the fisheries are currently not MCS® certified as stocks rebuild.

We currently source non-MSC® certified Mackerel from FAO 27 – North Atlantic (subarea 5a), within the allowable catch quotas.

You can learn about NOAA’s management of U.S. Sustainable Fisheries here:

Why use a BPA-Ni inner coating?

Bar Harbor Foods® uses 100% recyclable steel containers with BPA-NI coatings to protect the food contents from interacting adversely with the metal container. Fish, seafood and high-acid products, like tomato-based products, are required by the FDA to be canned in lined containers.

BPA-Ni (Ni = non-intent) is the accurate industry term for linings made without the chemical Bisphenol-A (BPA).

In addition, our can labels are made from recycled paper stock and printed with vegetable inks. As our tin-free steel containers are 100% recyclable, they can be infinitely repurposed and reused.

Is it a Chowder or a Bisque?

Chowder is traditionally a hearty soup, usually made with potatoes and larger pieces of meat or seafood. It’s origins lead back to Newfoundland and it appears the word “chowder” is a corruption of the French chaudier (which means “cauldron”). It is believed Breton fishermen brought it to Newfoundland and from there the name spread to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and further south into New England.

Bisque, on the other hand, is also of French origin, and, was originally prepared from the strained broth of boiled crustaceans; namely, lobster, langoustine, crab, shrimp or crayfish. It rarely contains pieces of meat or seafood, and cream is added to give it additional nutrition and to produce its silky texture.

How to read the production and best buy dates

The Best By Date for Bar Harbor® products is located on the product lid of most of our chowders, bisques and meats. It can be found on the neck of a bottle of the clam and lobster juices.

The Best by Date is in a Month/Year format. Example: 03/2019. The production date is in Julian Calendar code
Example: G0468
“G” is an internal code for the product, in this case, Clam Chowder. The numbers “046”, the 46th day of the year. The last number the year of production, 2018.
This product was produced in early February 2018.

What is the P65 warning on the label?

In the state of California, most products must have this warning notice on their labels. More in-depth information can be found on this website: https://www.p65warnings.ca.gov/

As does the food industry in general, Bar Harbor Foods® uses welded steel cans for most of our seafood products, which are not harmful, but in order to remain compliant with the California laws, we must include the P65 section on our labels.