Norwegian cod farming company Ode has been granted Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certification, a first for any cod farming company.
ASC announced its plans to add cod to its certification program in September 2025, and officially added it in Q4 2025 following a stakeholder consultation. The organization said much of that input came from Norway, where most of the cod-farming industry is located.
“The certification of Atlantic cod marks an important milestone for ASC, demonstrating our ability to respond quickly to market demand for new species,” ASC CEO Chris Ninnes said at the time.
At the announcement, Ode Founder and Head of Business Development Tor Olav Seim said the company welcomed its inclusion and said it gave the company a “clear pathway,” which it has now followed to achieve the first certification to ASC Salmon and Cod Standard v1.5.
"This is an important milestone for Ode, our customers and the wider cod industry. ASC ensures that companies operate according to sustainable principles, prioritize animal welfare, and act in a socially responsible manner,” Ode CEO Ola Kvalheim said in a release. “This certification is a strong validation of Ode, the way we operate, and the products we provide our customers. Now consumers and the wider society can have even more trust in farmed cod being a high-quality sustainable product produced in a responsible manner.”
The audits performed by ASC covered a range of different requirements, including impacts on the environment, containment and escape prevention, traceability of feed ingreidents, and more. Seim said the Ode team worked to achieve the certification “for a long time, especially our operations and quality departments, who have developed the systems that enable us to document sustainable operations down to the smallest detail.”
“A certification like this is something you must earn through documented sustainable and responsible operations," Seim said.
Ode Commercial Director Anders Tofte Wilhelmsen said ASC certification is a way to open doors to new markets and retailers that require companies prove the sustainability credentials of their products.
"For several of the large retail chains and customers, ASC is not nice to have, but rather a table-stakes requirement for being on the shelf,” Wilhelmsen said. “Now we finally have that validation, and it opens doors we have been knocking on for a long time.”
