BAP feed mill standards completed

The Global Aquaculture Alliance on Monday announced that it completed its Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification standards for feed mills.

With the addition of the feed mill standards, BAP certification now covers the entire aquaculture production chain, from hatchery to processing.

The BAP program requires feed mills to develop plans to avoid unsustainable sources of raw materials and transition to fishmeal and fish oil from responsibly managed fisheries. By 2015, at least 50 percent of the fishmeal and fish oil derived from reduction fisheries and fishery byproducts must come from approved sources.

BAP-certified feed mills must also indicate a feed fish inclusion factor on product labels, packaging or other documentation that quantifies marine ingredient content for all fish feeds.

“Development of the feed mill standards was a lengthy process that involved input from major ingredient suppliers, feed manufacturers, NGOs and other stakeholders,” said Dr. Sergio Nates, chairman of the technical committee responsible for developing the standards. “Once completed, however, we resolved some difficult issues, such as the transition to certified sustainable fishmeal sources and a transparent and audited system that allows farmers to determine fish in/fish out ratios.”