SeafoodSource is closely following the sustainable seafood movement by compiling a regular round-up of sector updates about certifications. If you have an announcement, please send it to [email protected].
– Safe Catch has introduced a new line of tinned smoked rainbow trout, which is labeled with the responsibly farmed certification of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC).
"Health, quality, and safety are core to Safe Catch, which is why we source our trout exclusively from ASC-certified farms," Safe Catch CEO and Co-Founder Bryan Boches said. "Just as we mercury test our trout for consumer confidence and well-being, we rely on the ASC label to demonstrate that our fish have been raised with care and are certified to the highest global standards.”
The ASC is currently in the midst of a campaign to build consumer awareness about the benefits of responsibly farmed seafood and has partnered with Safe Catch as they launch their new trout line to mark National Seafood Month in the U.S.
"Over half of all seafood we eat today in the U.S. is farm-raised, and that number is on the rise. We believe it’s a perfect time for shoppers to learn more about the positive benefits that eating certified, responsibly farmed seafood can offer – from helping to preserve wild fish populations for future generations to providing a consistent, healthful source of protein that is also good for our planet," ASC North America Marketing Manager Athena Davis said. "Partners like Safe Catch, who demonstrate their sustainability commitments through the use of ASC’s label, play an important role.”
– The ASC has partnered with Bali, Indonesia-based nonprofit KALEKA to issue a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to drive sustainable practices in aquaculture in the Seruyan district of Indonesia. KALEKA studies systemic issues facing farmers and tests solutions with farmer support.
Under the MOU, ASC will run an improver program with farmers and other local entities. The goal of the project is to allow seafood farmers in the area to become certified by a jurisdictional entity, which will then promote effective assurance mechanisms at scale and affect aquaculture practices beyond the level of individual farms.
This jurisdictional approach to change is a new strategy for the ASC and will require the participation of a jurisdictional entity made up of seafood farmers, members of government, and other key industry and local stakeholders.
"ASC is excited to embark on this journey with KALEKA in exploring new ways to support seafood farmers using scalable and effective assurance mechanisms to drive transformational change," ASC CEO Chris Ninnes said. "This project is another example of our ongoing work to help farmers who are at the beginning of their journey towards environmental sustainability and social responsibility.”
– Cologne, Germany-based GLOBALG.A.P. Secretariat has announced that Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) standards Version 6 have received recognition from the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) in recognition of IFA’s dedication to upholding the highest standards of food safety across the supply chain. IFA Version 6 offers updated best principles and criteria for aquaculture and fruit and vegetable farming.
"We are excited about maintaining the recognition by GFSI and look forward to continuing to uphold the highest standards of food safety in collaboration with our stakeholders,” GLOBALG.A.P. Managing Director Dr. Elmé Coetzer-Boersma said.
GLOBALG.A.P. began as EUREPGAP in 1997, with a mission of spreading responsible farming practices to ensure food safety; 200,000 producers now hold GLOBALG.A.P. certification around the world. IFA is the most widely used GLOBALG.A.P. standard, which applies to fruit, vegetables, aquaculture, and more.
– BioMar’s Guayaquil, Ecuador-based feed production site has been awarded ASC Feed Certification as part of BioMar’s broader sustainability strategy, allowing Ecuadorian shrimp farmers to use ASC feed in a global market where sustainability is increasingly valued.
"Our goal is to provide shrimp farmers with the tools they need to succeed in a rapidly evolving industry," BioMar Group Vice President for Latin America Shrimp and Hatcheries Henrick Aarestrup said. "With this certification, our customers can be confident that they are using feed that meets the highest global standards for sustainability, helping them to secure their position in a fast-growing market.”
– French members of the Association of Fishermen of Aquitaine have joined the Spanish North Atlantic Albacore Artisanal Fishery, which has been Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard-certified since 2016. The fishery operates in the Bay of Biscay, uses highly selective gear, and aims to ensure that no interaction with vulnerable species occur.
In order to maintain its MSC certification, the Aquitaine albacore fishery has committed to making further measures toward protecting vulnerable and protected species by 2026.
– Pacifical, a tuna traceability and verification company, has announced an expansion of its services to include tuna caught by fish aggregating devices (FAD) in waters belonging to the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA), the world’s largest sustainable tuna fishery.
Members of the PNA include Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu, as well as the Tokelau territory of New Zealand.
Pacifical will now be able to track and verify FAD-caught skipjack, yellowfin, and bigeye tuna, as well as provide its longstanding free-school tuna verification services. Pacifical offers online verification platform SmarTuna to allow for the tracking and verification of all three species by both FAD and purse-seine catch methods.
In a release, Pacifical said that “SmarTuna offers a real-time, digital supply chain map that delivers unparalleled transparency, evidencing sustainability and labor standards from sea to shelf.
"This platform gives brands, retailers, and consumers the confidence that their tuna products meet stringent environmental and ethical guidelines,” the company said.
“We have always felt confident that the PNA team would be able to successfully demonstrate to the adjudicator based on solid data and undeniable facts that their purse seine fishery is truly sustainable," Pacifical Managing Director Henk Brus said. "We are proud to be close long-time partners with the PNA communities and look forward to expanding our cooperation on traceability and verification throughout the entire tuna supply chain using our new SmarTuna platform.”
– The London, U.K.-based Certification and Ratings Collaboration has released a new version of its data tool for tracking global seafood production.
The data the tool makes available supplements the recently released Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) report, which assesses fishery sustainability worldwide by studying target species stocks.
The Certifications and Ratings Collaboration tool broadens the scope of the SOFIA report analysis by assessing a variety of sustainability measures. It brings together data from collaboration members including the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), Fair Trade USA, the Marine Stewardship Council, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program, the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, the Global Seafood Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices program, and the Qingdao Marine Conservation Society.
“Sustainability is about more than the target species stock, and issues ranging from forced labor to climate change determine whether the fish we eat today will be available tomorrow," ASC CEO Chris Ninnes said. "The standards employed by Collaboration members and other contributing organizations take those factor into account, and the Collaboration’s data tool presents those analyses in an accessible way.”
– Scotland-based Loch Fyne Oysters has become the first blue mussel producer to achieve certification against the ASC bivalve standard. The farm received the certification for its farmed blue mussels after an independent assessment by food and drink auditing firm Acoura.
The ASC bivalve standard requires farms to have no negative impact on biodiversity or the ecosystems in which they operate. Certified farms are required to demonstrate to a third-party certifier that they use practices which minimize their environmental and social impact.
Loch Fyne Oysters is an award-winning producer of mussels and serves blue-chip companies and Michelin-starred restaurants, as well as legacy brand retailers like Selfridges, and is part of the Associated Seafoods group.
"We hope our farming practices not only support the health of local ecosystems but also contribute to the long-term sustainability of the industry," Associated Seafoods Managing Director Victor West said.
