Tesco joins 'green' ban on fish oils

Pressure from green groups is set to wipe out British use of oils from industrial fishing in the North Sea, it emerged yesterday. Tesco, the UK's biggest supermarket chain, and Pura, a major margarine manufacturer, both pledged to stop using the oil, made from sand eels and other small fish, within a year.

The World Wide Fund for Nature and Greenpeace have run separate campaigns against the unregulated fishery, which is dominated by Denmark and Norway.

The organisations argue that the huge catches jeopardise the entire ecosystem because they take small fish near the base of the food chain. Sainsbury, Unilever, Associated British Foods and McVities have already promised to pull out of North Sea fish oil. Britain imports 260,000 tonnes a year, mostly for use in margarines. Nicholas Schoon