McDonald's Fish McBites & Filet-O-Fish To Go Eco-Friendly

McDonald's fish will be all-sustainable moving forward, the company announced recently, in a move that many see as part of a push by the fast-food giant to shore up its sales and image in a year that may be a difficult one for the company.

The chain also announced that it will be selling a new product starting in February called Fish McBites, which along with the long-beloved Filet-O-Fish sandwich, will be made exclusively out of Alaskan Pollack, which is a sustainable food source, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

Sustainable foods are more eco-friendly than others, and McDonald's will be proudly touting the new status of its fish by paying annual fees to the Marine Stewardship Council in order to put "Certified Sustainable Seafood" labels on the fish menu items' containers, according to Web Pro News.

"The certification and labeling program provides a mechanism to identify and reward existing good practice," Rupert Howes, the CEO of the Marine Stewardship Council, said, according to United Press International. "Working with companies like McDonald's who preference certified sustainable sea food, we can encourage less well-managed fisheries into the program where they have to make improvements to the way they fish the oceans. This is good news for consumers, good news for the environment, and it's good news for business."

Some companies such as Wal-Mart and Whole Foods offer certified sustainable fish products, but the L.A. Times reports that Mickey D's says it will be the first national restaurant chain to switch to all-sustainable fish.

The news about the major environmental move by McDonald's comes shortly after the fast-food giant removed the president of its U.S. business division after an important sales number slipped for the first time in nearly 10 years, the Associated Press reported. Some analysts, and even folks within the company's upper management, see a difficult year ahead for the company.

"By no means do we think 2013 is going to be an easy year," McDonald's CEO Don Thompson said in a conference call with analysts, according to the AP.