Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs

Please view our Factory Standard – Roadmap to certification.

Click here to access our online platform and submit your application form.

Once your application form is submitted, it will be reviewed by MarinTrust. If any comments or revisions are necessary, we will send them back to you before the application is approved and forwarded to your chosen Certification Body.

Please ensure that you follow the instructions carefully and provide accurate information to avoid any delays in processing your application.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please email us at [email protected].

You can find the requirements for Version 3 of the MarinTrust Factory Standard on the Version 3 page).

Please note that although the unit of certification is the production plant, the assessment of species is a necessary prerequisite in order to provide assurance for the responsible sourcing of raw materials used for the production of marine ingredients.

The MSC is a fisheries certification standard which allows a fishery to claim that it is “sustainable” following successfully passing a rigorous process to ensure that the fishery has an effective management based on a full ecosystem approach with specific provisions for the management of low tropic level species. MarinTrust is a factory certification standard which ensures responsible manufacturing and raw material sourcing. For whole fish to be assessed as responsible within the MarinTrust standard, they must either come from an MSC certified fishery or from a fishery that has been assessed and approved by independent third party auditors as meeting the MarinTrust standard. The standard is based on the key requirements of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries.

As a third party certification, MarinTrust cannot provide advice on which of our MarinTrust approved Certification Bodies you should choose. We advise that you contact the Certification Bodies directly to discuss the availability of their auditors and audit costs. You can find the contact details of our approved Certification Bodies via this link.

MarinTrust has written a guide to the online application form for new applicants and existing certificate holders/Improver Programme accepted sites:

MarinTrust Factory Standard and Improver Programme online form guide

If you have any further questions, please email: [email protected]

If you already have MarinTrust certification and need to update your information such as company name, primary contact, invoicing contact, or adding another fish species, simply complete a Scope Extension form available on our online platform via the following link.

Please refer to our guide to the online form if you require assistance.

Your scope extension request will be reviewed by MarinTrust, and any necessary comments or revisions will be sent back to you before approval. Once approved, it will be submitted to your chosen Certification Body. Please ensure you follow the instructions carefully and provide accurate information to avoid any delays.

Please read the clients transfer procedure if you wish to change Certification Body.

Both MarinTrust and MarinTrust Chain of Custody compliant factories shall now use the same logo: the MarinTrust logo. Click here for the brand guidelines. 

Accepted FIPs and accepted sites under the MarinTrust Improver Programme shall not use the MarinTrust logo. The IP is not a certification programme.

Yes. All by-products are required to be assessed under Version 3.

There is allowance for a by-product sourced from an approved whole fish fishery in your certificate scope to skip the Step 3 part of the by-product assessment.

No you cannot. Knowing the vessel flag states at the origin of your by-products is a requirement for proceeding with an assessment. Vessel flag states is one of the key data points required in the global fight against IUU fishing.  

• The Assessor uses flag state information to calculate the IUU fishing risk for each by-product.
• The flag state is the country in which the vessel is registered, the vessel is bound to comply with the rules and regulations of that country.
• A set of indicators based on the vessel flag state is used with risk thresholds set by MarinTrust. 

This information can be obtained in several ways.  

1. If the facility has access to its own vessels, or works with fishing companies to secure supply, the flag state is associated with those vessels and is usually the same country as your facility. 
2. If you secure by-products via intermediary suppliers, i.e. you purchase by-products, the origin of those by-products should be listed in supplier agreements for each supplier. Those supplier agreements would usually also identify whether the fishery of origin is MSC certified for instance. Equally, there may be company sourcing policies that stipulate which fisheries are eligible for by-products.  

No, if there are several stocks of the same species used, you only need to list them once in the application, in this case herring (Clupea harengus). Although the assessment process has changed, stock level assessments are still a part of the assessment.  

In the first step, only the species and the vessel flag state catching the species are required.  

Should that vessel flag state be identified as high risk, then the species will be assessed at stock level instead. The process at this stage is effectively the same as the V2 By-Product assessment, i.e. a Category C evaluation.  

To secure more information at this stage, the certification body will contact you and ask for the relevant information to complete the assessment.  

If the species is MSC Certified AND you have MSC Chain of Custody (CoC) for your facility, this information will be verified (Checked) and if it matches, the by-products are automatically approved without an assessment and at no cost.  

However, if you do not have an MSC CoC, then a by-product assessment is required. MSC Fisheries certification by itself is not enough to secure an automatic approval. Nor is just having MSC CoC for non-MSC species. Both types of certification are required to gain automatic approval.  

It’s important to maintain MSC CoC for all by-products. If MSC certification is lost, then you shall re-apply for approval via a MarinTrust assessment (scope extension form). 

No. As part of the facility standard, an auditor will check that all facilities have traceability information for all raw materials.  

For all by-products, this will require: 

As defined in the MarinTrust Standard clauses 2.11.3.1 and 3.3.2.3. 

• Supplier name, address/location
• Permitted activity/legal entity/registered food business operation
• Species (including scientific name), or for mixed by-products containing more than one species, a list/description of species (including scientific name) contained in the mix
• Date of production and/or of dispatch from the supplier  

For all whole fish this will require: 

As defined in the MarinTrust Standard clauses 2.11.2.2 and 3.2.5.  

• Vessel details
• Authorisation for fishing: license/permits as applicable
• Species (including scientific name)
• Catch areas
• Catch date
• Fishing method/gear 

The KDEs required for whole fish are more comprehensive and recognise that details such as vessel origin, are very difficult to obtain for by-products, especially if they are sourced from a third party.  

Although many of the key requirements are the same between versions, the Management and Ecosystem Impacts criteria have been improved by restructuring the clauses and introducing sub-clauses. These clauses are materially different and require an assessment by a Certification Body (CB). In addition, as criteria continually evolve and are improved through the MarinTrust governance and policy development processes, all modifications, improvements, clarifications and additional guidance will be implemented through version controls to V3 and will not be applicable to V2. This is another reason why it is important to align all fisheries under the latest version of the criteria, as we want to ensure that all certificate holders can benefit and be an inclusive and equal part of the programme as the criteria improve over time. 

Annual charges can be found on the MarinTrust website via the following links for MarinTrust Factory Standard certification, MarinTrust Chain of Custody certification and the MarinTrust Improver Programme.

Cost for MarinTrust whole fish assessments and by-products assessments can be found on the MarinTrust website by clicking here. 

You can pay your invoice through bank transfer, you will find the details on the invoice which will be sent to you by our automated invoicing system Xero to the email addresses you provided to us when filling up the application or scope extension. 

If you notice an error, please contact our billing department immediately at [email protected] , and we will investigate the issue and correct it if needed.

Refunds are issued according to our refund policy. If the refund is approved, you will have two options: receive your refund in full within seven working days or keep the sum as credit for future invoices payments.

Yes, we can issue invoices in different currencies. Please request this when filling up application or scope extension, the prices are in GBP however you can choose to pay using other currencies (USD American Dollars and EURO) the fees on the invoice will reflect the currency exchange.

If you have not received your invoice, please check your spam or junk folder. You can also email us at [email protected].

The due date is shown on your invoice. Typically, payment is due within 14 days of the invoice date unless otherwise specified.

Once payment has been processed, on request, you will receive a confirmation email. You can also check your account status online.

For any further questions, please reach out to our billing department at [email protected].

This is when MarinTrust recognises other Standard or Benchmark Tool requirements as fully or partially equivalent against specific components of the MarinTrust Programme via the MarinTrust recognition procedure.

Recognition of equivalence is in four stages:

Stage 1: Initiation of recognition of equivalence process
Stage 2: Self-assessment
Stage 3: Third-party equivalency assessment
Stage 4: Recognition decision and update of documentation

Click here for further information.

There are currently four Standards recognised under the MarinTrust Programme: MSC, Chilean PAC, FEMAS and GMP+.

To apply for recognition, please contact MarinTrust at [email protected] outlining your intent to undergo the process of recognition of equivalence.

Having a recognised Standard will reduce costs for certificate holders and applicants and decrease the audit duration for certificate holders and applicants. It will also reduce the need for unnecessary assessments and/or audit duplication.

Equivalency assessment is carried out by an independent third party. The third party conducts the assessment and shares it directly with the Standard owner. There is then a two-week comments period before the final report is submitted and the recommendation is made to MarinTrust.