The CRC commissioned two previous Omnibus Studies – one collected data in November/December 2009 (n = 2,643) and the second collected data across December 201 and January 2011 (n=3,629). These studies had three keys objects:
1. Measure seafood consumption levels and patterns including consumers' knowledge and preferences for seafood (benchmark and track changes over time).
2. Measure consumer acceptance (in terms of consumers’ willingness to pay, the expected market share, segmentation, and importance of product features) and forecast the demand for a range of innovative seafood products, packaging, and services.
3. Determine the relative impact of different advertising, promotional messages (e.g., health benefits, sustainability and other environmental claims, etc), education programs and the extent those messages would be valued by the consumers.

The CRC has conducted considerable further research since these studies, however this has been targeted to specific species (eg barramundi, prawns etc) with no further tracking over time of seafood consumption levels and patterns including consumers' knowledge and preferences for seafood. Given the work of the CRC in several species since the last Omnibus a final study addressing objectives one specifically would allow changes over time to be measured. In addition the final Omnibus could include questions addressing issues that have arisen through the further studies conducted by the CRC that remain unanswered including:
1. The role and impact of childhood habits on seafood consumption
2. Gender differences in purchasing and preparing seafood
3. The role of health/dieting on the Monday consumption pattern
4. The role of social media in seafood consumption
5. Consumer understanding and impact of sustainability
6. Underutilised species
7. The impact of provenance and traceability.

These issues are in line with the final recommendations from the previous two omnibus studies.

Flesh colour in Atlantic salmon is considered a fundamental, if not the most important, quality parameter, and affects acceptance and price of the product. The dietary pigments responsible for flesh colour (i.e. astaxanthin and canthaxanthin) are expensive and represent 6-8% of the total production cost. Therefore, reduced flesh colour in the stock results in considerable economic losses. Several factors have been shown to impact flesh colour (e.g. environment, diet formulation, size, genetics) highlighting the complexity underlying the variation. As variable/reduced flesh colour was identified in a portion of the Petuna stock following periods of high summer temperatures, the project focused on the possible genetic effect on the trait. Furthermore, due to a general lack of knowledge of the molecular mechanisms responsible for flesh colour and its metabolism in general, which involves multiple organs and tissues, and given the opportunity to compare good and affected individuals, such investigations were also undertaken. In light of climate change and increasing seawater temperature, understanding the genetic component of the differential response manifested as variable/reduce flesh colour following thermal stress, would pave the way for improving genetic selection and producing fish with increased thermal tolerance. Finally, detection and understanding of the variation affecting flesh colour in Atlantic salmon are fundamental in order to improve marketability of the product.