WITH people, such as celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, raising awareness of what we feed our children for school lunch, the seafood industry is taking the opportunity to promote oily fish as part of a healthy diet for Scottish school children.

Later this year, a major new initiative, which aims to responsibly promote oil-rich fish as part of a healthy balanced diet for children, is to be launched by the Sea Fish Industry Authority (Seafish) and Seafood Scotland.

"Our job is to ensure that when offered a choice of mackerel fish cakes, macaroni cheese or pizza at the school canteen then the kids opt for the healthy option. However our biggest challenge is to find ways to motivate the youth of today to do this," says Karen Galloway, youth marketing manager at Seafish.

"Oil rich fish needs to be positioned as more than being just 'good for me'. We have to convey real benefits that are motivational to the kids and to the mums who we want to encourage to introduce oil-rich fish into mealtimes at home. We feel we've come up with a campaign that will start to educate kids and mums but in a fun and involving way. We are really looking forward to developing this campaign and playing our part in encouraging children to eat more healthily."

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