The “Nordic Myth” in a Bag: The Greenwashing of Baltic Herring Dog Treats
Walk into a pet store today, or scroll through Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, and you may see bags of “Wild Baltic Herring” dog treats. The packaging has Soft colors. Minimal design. A quiet northern mood that suggests clean waters, simple nutrition, and sustainable sourcing.
For many pet parents, that story lands immediately. “Nordic” sounds pure. “Wild-caught” sounds natural, both of which would lead the consumer to think it’s a premium treat.
But Baltic herring carries a much more complicated story than the label tells.
The Baltic Sea is commonly described as the most polluted sea in the world. The Baltic Sea is semi-enclosed with longstanding contamination issues. Baltic herring is not treated by the market like a premium delicacy. A significant share moves through low-cost industrial channels, including aquaculture feed and other animal-feed uses such as fur production. That gap between the elegant story on the front of the bag and the actual ecological and economic reality is where the greenwashing starts.
Why the Baltic Sea Is Different
The Baltic is not an open ocean. It is a semi-enclosed sea with very limited water exchange, which means contaminants linger in the system rather than being flushed away quickly. HELCOM’s latest holistic assessment describes hazardous substances as one of the major pollution pressures affecting the Baltic Sea.
That matters because fish are a product of their ecosystem, and when an ecosystem has a long contamination history, that context belongs in the conversation, especially when the ingredient is being sold as “pure” or “pristine.”
The Pollutant Story
PCBs and dioxins
Dioxins and PCBs are among the best-documented concerns in Baltic fish. EFSA describes them as toxic chemicals that persist in the environment and accumulate in the food chain, particularly in animal fat. That matters for herring because herring is an oily fish.
EFSA has specifically warned that frequent consumers of fatty Baltic fish, including Baltic herring, are more likely to exceed health-based exposure thresholds for dioxins and PCBs than other consumers of fatty fish.
This is one of the major problems with the “clean Nordic fish”. With Baltic herring comes from a region with a long, well-established record of concern over persistent organic pollutants. Calling that “pristine” is marketing, not context.
PFAS
PFAS, often called “forever chemicals,” are another growing concern. In one study they found that (63 grams or 2.2 OZ Wet) or (~15 Grams or .53 OZ Dry) of Sprat would exceed the weekly tolerable limit of PFAS in children. While for Baltic Herring it was (~100 Gram or 3.5 OZ Wet or 25 Grams or .88 OZ)
PFAS are not all identical, and not every dataset measures the same compounds, which is part of what makes the topic so complicated. The EPA currently only tracks 206 different PFAS, as the EPA currently recognizes 205, while different chemical databases report the number in the thousands, while Pubchem put the number at over 7 million. But the overall direction is clear: these substances are persistent, mobile, and now part of the Baltic contamination picture that responsible sourcing conversations should acknowledge.
Microplastics
Microplastics add another layer to the problem. HELCOM notes that microplastics are a concern not only as litter, but because they may provide a pathway for harmful chemicals into the food web. A recent peer-reviewed study found microplastics in 100% of seawater samples and 61% of fish samples taken from the Baltic region analyzed. Review work has also described Baltic waters and sediments as heavily contaminated with microplastics, with wide-ranging concentrations reported in both.
Which is just another sign that the Baltic is under sustained pollution pressure.
Conventional and chemical weapons on the seabed
The Baltic Sea also contains large quantities of dumped material from the world wars and their aftermath. HELCOM maintains dedicated assessments on both chemical munitions and other hazardous submerged objects, and the region is actively tracking the environmental and human-safety risks.
According to HELCOM, sulfur mustard is the most abundant chemical warfare agent in dumped munitions in the Baltic Sea, and it poses a present risk both to humans who come into contact with it and to organisms in its immediate vicinity. HELCOM and related European materials also note broader concern over conventional munitions and explosives on the seabed, especially as corrosion progresses and as seabed use increases for fishing, shipping, and offshore infrastructure.
What this means is that the Baltic’s environmental burden includes not just routine industrial pollutants but also a documented legacy of submerged military waste (at least 50,000 tonnes). Many of these munitions (chemical and conventional) have been underwater for more than 70 years. While there have already been leakages into the surrounding environment, it is expected to occur with increasing frequency over the next decade if they are not removed.
This is a very different picture from the gentle ford fantasy printed on premium treat packaging.
Other Pollutants
Pharmaceuticals
Heavy Metals
Flame Retardants
Cheap Fish, Expensive Story
The next clue is economic.
In Finland’s 2024 producer-price data, Baltic herring sold for human consumption averaged EUR 0.52 per kilogram, while industrial Baltic herring averaged EUR 0.33 per kilogram. That is not the pricing of an elite, nutritionally privileged ingredient. It is the pricing of a cheap commodity fish moving through a volume market.
That does not automatically make the fish worthless, but it does puncture the premium myth. If a brand is asking consumers to imagine a rare Northern treasure, the raw-market economics should at least vaguely resemble that story.
What Sweden Tells Its Own People
There’s another important piece of context that rarely makes it onto packaging: what the countries closest to the Baltic actually tell their own citizens about eating these fish.
In Sweden, the National Food Agency (Livsmedelsverket) has issued long-standing dietary guidance specifically for Baltic fish like herring due to elevated levels of dioxins and PCBs.
For most people, eating Baltic fish occasionally is considered acceptable. But for certain groups, the guidance is much more cautious.
- The recommendation for Children, pregnant women, and women of childbearing age is to eat these fish no more than 2–3 times per year.
- While for the general population it is once a week.
That is a very different message from what appears on a bag of dog treats marketed as a daily treat.
It does not mean Baltic herring is unusable or inherently unsafe in all contexts. But it does highlight a disconnect. In the regions closest to the source, regulators acknowledge contamination concerns and recommend moderation. Meanwhile, in export markets, the same fish can be positioned as a clean, premium, everyday wellness ingredient.
That contrast matters.
Because if an ingredient comes with consumption limits for humans in its home region, it raises a reasonable question about how it should be positioned in pet products marketed for frequent or daily use.
Where Baltic Herring Actually Goes
The end-use picture makes the story clearer still.
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) reported that 20% of the Baltic herring catch landed in Finland in 2023 was used directly as food. More than a 60% was used to produce fishmeal for aquaculture. 11% was used as feed for fur animals. The remaining share was exported. In Sweden only 10% is used for humans, with the rest going to pets, and other animals.
So when a pet treat brand presents Baltic herring as some boutique culinary-grade treasure, that is not really how the market handles the fish at scale. A more honest summary is that only a minority goes directly to people, while most moves rest through feed channels, including aquaculture and fur production.
Why the “Sustainable” isn’t entirely accurate
This is where the word “sustainable” starts doing a little too much emotional labor.
On a dog-treat bag, “sustainably sourced” suggests ecological balance, transparency, and a healthy marine environment. But by itself, that phrase tells you nothing about contamination burden, end-use economics, the share routed into industrial feed channels, or whether the ingredient is being romanticized far beyond its actual market role.
A fish can be cheap at landing, tied to a contaminated ecosystem, and used heavily in industrial feed streams, yet still be sold in a soft, premium package with a story about purity and Nordic simplicity. That is what makes greenwashing effective. It is rarely one giant lie. It is usually a highly curated half-truth.
What Pet Parents Are Really Buying
Most pet parents reaching for a fish treat are trying to do something good. They want a clean protein, the omega 3 fatty acids EPA & DHA.
That instinct makes sense.
But the right question is not whether fish sounds healthy in general. The better question is whether this fish, from this ecosystem, moving through this supply chain, deserves the halo it is being given.
And that is where Baltic herring starts to look a lot less like a premium wellness ingredient and a lot more like a low-cost commodity fish with a very polished identity problem.
The Verdict: A Beautiful Lie
The “Nordic Myth” works because it feels wholesome. It invites pet parents to believe they are buying a little piece of clean northern nature for the dogs they love.
But the underlying facts point somewhere else.
Baltic herring is often cheap, and is connected to longstanding concern over PCBs, dioxins, PFAS, microplastics, and even the region’s documented legacy of dumped conventional and chemical munitions.
So no, this is not a simple story about a pristine northern superfood. Baltic Herring is not some precious, small-batch seafood treasure moving neatly from Nordic waters to boutique dog treats. Much of it is part of a broader industrial feed pipeline, including aquaculture and fur production. Once you understand that, the soft packaging and “pure Nordic” language start to feel a lot less wholesome.
It is a story about how a low-cost fish mostly used for aquaculture from a stressed marine ecosystem can be wrapped in clean Scandinavian design, given a premium wellness identity, and sold as though none of the underlying environmental and industrial context matters.
That may be good branding.
It is not the same thing as honest sourcing.
This is just one example of the greenwashing, or taking advantage of consumers and pet parents who can’t be expected to know the ins and outs of various topics, whether it’s the true state of the Baltic Sea, Wild Atlantic Salmon being a protected species, with the Atlantic salmon found in food, treats or oil all coming from farmed salmon. Norwegian, Irish, New Zealand, Scottish, Faro Island Salmon all being farmed Atlantic salmon Dwindling frog populations in countries where the harvesting of wild frogs is still legal. Which specific fish are rich sources of EPA and DHA and which are moderate or low, or the general ineffectiveness of Glucosamine and Chondroitin.
References
Piskuła P, Astel A, Pawlik M. Microplastics in seawater and fish acquired from the corresponding fishing zones of the Baltic Sea. Mar Pollut Bull. 2025 Feb;211:117485. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2024.117485. Epub 2024 Dec 22. PMID: 39718281.
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) Luonnonvarakeskus
Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission(HELCOM)