Retailers and other seafood-buying companies can use their purchasing power to play a critical role in supporting fisheries to make necessary environmental and social improvements. However, they need to be sure that the seafood they are buying is coming from a credible fishery improvement project (FIP).
To address this challenge, the Global Seafood Alliance (GSA) and FishChoice have signed an MoU and launched a new collaborative project to use GSA’s Seafood Processing Standard (SPS) to provide greater assurances and traceability for FIPs reporting on FisheryProgress.org.
FishChoice plays a critical role in providing accurate, consistent, and credible information about sustainable seafood products and FIPs via its two platforms, FishChoice.com and FisheryProgress.org. Using GSA’s SPS, the two organizations will conduct a pilot to bring clarity and value to wild seafood supply chains currently operating outside of third-party fishery certification programs.
SPS addresses environmental responsibility, social accountability, and food safety for farm-raised and wild-caught seafood processors and includes traceability components that provide additional insight into the sourcing of FIP products. GSA is developing additional guidance and SPS audit materials for processors to report verified landings from FIPs reporting on FisheryProgress, as well as for auditors to verify these linkages.
“As GSA continues to engage in the wild seafood space, we’re working with our marketplace partners to identify where our organization can provide the most value,” said Wally Stevens, CEO of GSA. “It’s exciting to start a project like this with FishChoice where we’ll leverage our longstanding and proven expertise in the auditing of seafood processing facilities to address current gaps in the assurance of credible FIP traceability in the marketplace.”
"As the most widely traded food commodity in the world, seafood brings a unique set of challenges in traceability and assurance," said Richard Boot, CEO of FishChoice. "Finding practical ways to use technology to address these challenges is essential to continue moving toward an environmentally and socially responsible seafood industry.”
About Global Seafood Alliance
The Global Seafood Alliance is an international, nonprofit trade association dedicated to advancing responsible seafood practices through education, advocacy and third-party assurances. Through the development of its Best Aquaculture Practices and Best Seafood Practices certification programs, GSA has become the leading provider of assurances for seafood globally. The organization’s work addresses the full spectrum of responsibility, from environmental responsibility and social accountability to food safety. Established in 1997 as the Global Aquaculture Alliance, GSA is headquartered in Portsmouth, N.H., USA. To learn more, visit www.globalseafood.org
About FishChoice
FishChoice creates online tools that power progress on seafood sustainability by giving thousands of businesses the information they need, when they need it. We streamline sustainability, pulling data and information from across the seafood landscape into two accessible, understandable, and efficient platforms – FishChoice.com and FisheryProgress.org. FishChoice.com is an interactive platform that helps businesses learn about the basics of sustainability, track the sustainability status of their products, share that information with customers, and find seafood that meets their sustainability requirements. FisheryProgress is a one-stop shop for reliable information about the progress of global FIPs, so that companies can use their buying power to reward progress and encourage improvement. To learn more, visit www.fishchoice.com