The seafood industry faces a pivotal moment as it seeks to balance increasing demand with sustainable practices. As populations grow and dietary preferences shift towards healthier protein sources, the pressure on marine resources intensifies. This is particularly evident in aquaculture feed, which heavily depends on marine ingredients such as fishmeal and fish oil. Ensuring these ingredients are responsibly sourced and produced is critical for the industry's long-term viability and social and environmental responsibility.

This is where MarinTrust enters the game, as the third-party certification Programme advancing best practice in the responsible sourcing, traceability and production of marine ingredients. Although the unit of certification under the MarinTrust Factory Standard is the marine ingredient production facility, the assessment of species in a fishery is a prerequisite: it is necessary to provide assurance for the responsible sourcing of raw materials used for the production of marine ingredients. MarinTrust’s whole fish fishery assessment was updated as part of the revision of the Factory Standard last year, now operating under Version 3.

Recognition

The recognition of the MSC Fisheries Standard Version 2.01 against MarinTrust whole fish fishery assessment criteria Version 3 was established after a thorough equivalency assessment conducted by a third party. It improves efficiency and reduces unnecessary duplication of processes and their associated costs, between MarinTrust and MSC. With this, MarinTrust offers marine ingredients producers an opportunity to contribute to the global responsibility of the sourcing and production of marine ingredients through a streamlined certification journey.

Here’s how it works:

  • If raw material originates from an MSC-certified fishery and falls within the MarinTrust certification scope, with a valid MSC Chain of Custody (CoC) certificate, it is automatically recognised. No extra steps are needed.
  • For MSC-certified fisheries which lack a valid MSC CoC certificate, MarinTrust steps in, conducting verification to ensure the material is MarinTrust compliant. If it passes, the material is recognised.
  • When none of the above criteria are met, the third party Certification Body undertakes MarinTrust’s rigorous fishery or by-product assessment.

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