AN ECO-FRIENDLY Musselburgh eatery which specialises in seafood has won a Green Tourism accolade.

East Coast, on the town’s North High Street, received a ‘silver’ award for good environmentally friendly practice.

Green Tourism’s awards’ certification programme recognises the commitment of tourism businesses which are actively working to become more sustainable.

The accolades, both gold and silver, act as a hallmark of ‘green quality’.

Carlo and Katia Crolla, owners of East Coast, decided to take the long-established family business into a new era 18 months ago.

The couple transformed their fish and chip shop, formerly The Coral Reef, and premises next door into a modern fish and chip shop, and a new seafood and grill restaurant.

Katia said: “Setting the bar high with a silver award is amazing and surpassed our expectations but we will be working closely with Green Tourism to achieve a gold award.

“I think this is a really special award and is great for Musselburgh.”

She added: “We have worked really hard to achieve this award and we are so proud to add this one to our growing collection.

“When we opened East Coast, one of our main objectives was to be as eco-friendly as possible.

“We didn’t want to open our takeaway after such a huge refit to harm the environment, so we decided from the start that we would make everything as eco-friendly as we possibly could.

“Musselburgh is such a beautiful town, with our stunning coastal views, beach and harbour, so we try our best to make sure we can help to keep it that way.

“We are proud to have achieved a silver rating as we have only been open for 18 months and have managed to achieve this at such an early stage.

“When we opened we decided to ditch the cheaper options of plastic and polystyrene packaging and go for all compostable, biodegradable and recyclable packaging.

“This of course affects our profit margins but it helps us to achieve running a business we love by doing the right thing.”

Katia said: “Our top-of-the range Kiremko frying range has the highest certified efficiency levels at up to 94 per cent.

“It recycles heat, saves on oil due to heat retention and has in-built filtration removing impurities from the oil, meaning it lasts longer.

“Our oil-efficient system cuts out wastage by up to 50 per cent and any leftover oil which is deemed low quality is uplifted and turned into biodiesel.

“Even the oil we use, high oleic sunflower oil, is an entirely natural, sustainable plant oil and the healthiest commercial oil on the market today.

“Our potato peeler drainage hose runs into an interceptor tank collecting all peel that’s mixed with water. LED lighting is used throughout, also helping the environment.”

She added: “We use as many local suppliers as possible. Our main fish supplier is J K Thompson of Musselburgh. They supply us with MSC-certified seafood and we know the details of exactly where each fish was caught and what boat it came off.

“Our potato supplier is on Brownrigg Farm.

“We also use local suppliers such as Belhaven Smokehouse for our lobsters and crab, along with many other local, Scottish suppliers who provide everything from drinks to ice cream.

“Working with these fantastic local companies give us the confidence that we are supplying the best quality food and drinks our county has to offer.”