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Certification schemes in Aquaculture

By Brian Kingzett and Melissa Struthers, September 2005

Note: A shorter version of this article was published in Northern Aquaculture Magazine in September 2005

Ultimately certified seafood will become the norm, not the exception. – Howard Johnson, Seafood Market Analyst and Prognosticator Extraordinaire, WAS, Indonesia 2005

The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage. - Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline

By now, many of us, and even probably the children of those of us who have them, when faced with a shopping store shelf of canned tuna instinctively choose the tin with a “dolphin safe” certification logo. Most of us as consumers have no clue what exactly the “dolphin safe” certification mark is and how it relates to fishing practices, or even aware that a debate rages in some circles about exactly what “dolphins safe” practices are, or that there is a variety of different programs and marks (including the Flipper Seal of Approval). For most consumers, the choice is determined by the insinuation that the tin without the logo must then somehow be “unsafe”. Just go ahead and try and explain to your young daughter in the middle of the supermarket aisle that you are willing to condone killing dolphins to save a quarter.

Not to make light of the dolphin program which has been around since the 1980’s and has reputedly saved millions of dolphins, or any other sustainability certification scheme, but such is the power of participating (or not) in certification schemes when they are taken up by an industry. Ultimately consumers and their insecurities about food (reactive) or their desire to do the right thing (pro-active) drive the ever increasing trend among all food stuffs to demonstrate that they are achieving high standards in terms of environment, sustainability, and food safety. Customers expect food to be safe, and it is the assurance of safety and quality that underpins consumer loyalty. This determines whether your product or your competitors makes it to the check-out. Next time you are wandering the aisles of the grocery store play this little game, look to see how many “packaged products” have some sort of a certification scheme on the label, extra points by counting the maximum number of logos on a single product.

Retailers are in control

Retailers and to a lesser extent, food service have all the power in this relationship with the consumer. As the one that deals directly with consumer concerns and is acutely aware of what sells and what doesn’t and decide which product, the retailer ultimately decides what even makes it to the shelf in the first place. Now add in food safety liability, consumer ignorance and confusion about seafood, seafood watch programs and an anti-aquaculture lobby willing to fuel consumer fears with a liberal approach to the truth. Suddenly, retailers need to demonstrate that they are doing the right thing and that translates into some sort of certification scheme that they can rely on, the consumer may assume that retailer is the one evaluating the certification scheme.

As to the strength of this power, consider the Wal-Mart retail chain, who this spring announced that it was requiring its six farmed salmon suppliers to comply with an eco-certification scheme developed with NGO’s and Fundacion Chile. Wal-Mart is the worlds largest retailer at 285.2 billion dollars in sales. To put this in perspective, 7.5 cents of every retail dollar in the US during 2002 was spent in a Wal-Mart. With apologies to the late jazz singer Sarah Vaughn, “Whatever Wal-Mart wants, Wal-mart gets”.

The point of the above is that in the end, the market is driving implementation of certification, but certification in itself is a good thing. Certification allows responsible players who are trying to do the right thing for the environment, social responsibility and food safety to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack. Ultimately the market will reward them for it through increased profits or survival in a competitive market.

Certifying the Process

Most certification schemes use what is called “process certification” as opposed to “product certification”. Process certification examines the facility and the practices that it employs and ensures that everything possible is being done to do the “best” job possible and high standards are met. Typically process certification follows a HACCP style approach.

To be meaningful, the process and standard must undergo peer scrutiny by varied stakeholders. Secondly companies must be educated, develop their own programs and establish them in writing as mission statements, procedures manuals, and company regulations. Furthermore companies must buy-in and instil the values and procedures through-out the workforce. Compliance audits and reviews demonstrate this to the world through award of certification marks or other tools.

Coming to an fish farm near you

In the aquaculture industry, Responsible Aquaculture CertificationorBest Aquaculture Practices schemes allow producers, processors, buyers and importers to respond to consumer pressure to insure that their farmed seafood comes from environmentally and socially sustainable methods of production, and that processes that maximize food safety are being used. Third party schemes guarantee that strict standards that are met and maintained using independent verification and confer more trust in the marketplace.

Additionally certification programs in the aquaculture industry typically end up bringing together on-farm food safety, environmental codes of practice, traceability and best manufacturing practices (BMP’s) which we will refer to as best aquaculture practices (BAP’s) into one neat package. As the market accepts and demands certification, the entire industry is led to continual improvement.

For the Canadian aquaculture industry with a genuine interest in environmentally sound production practices, strict food safety requirements and high labour standards for employees these programs should be pretty straight forward but that has not been the case until now as the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance working to develop certification as part of the “Brand Canada” program.

Schemes, schemes, everywhere a scheme

To see how certification schemes may play out in North American producers it is worthwhile to look at what is happening the global shrimp industry which first focussed the debate over aquaculture and food safety, social responsibility and environmental impacts while salmon farmers still thought they had nothing to worry about. With greater than 1.5 million hectares in shrimp farm production, mostly in the third world, the shrimp industry has given its detractors plenty of examples to complain about. That is not to mean that all shrimp farming is bad or that the industry has not been steadily improving its practices.

FAO, various NGO’s and the World Bank have stepped in and at an FAO workshop held during the World Aquaculture Society meetings this spring, a variety of new programmes and projects for the shrimp industry mostly in the making were showcased or discussed. These included:

What is yet unclear is whether schemes will to begin competing with each other and how the retail industry will react to possible consumer confusion on which certification is best or whether various retailers will each pick a separate program to encourage.

Aquaculture Certification Council

Arguably, the Aquaculture Certification Council Inc. has done the most work in instituting a BAP program in the shrimp industry. Operating over the last three years, the ACC is a nongovernmental body established to certify social, environmental and food safety standards at aquaculture facilities throughout the world. This Missouri based non-profit, non-member public benefit corporation applies elements of the Global Aquaculture Alliance Responsible Aquaculture Program in a certification system that combines site inspections and effluent sampling with sanitary controls, therapeutic controls and traceability. Founding supporters of the ACC include: the Darden Restaurant Group (Red Lobster, Olive Garden among others), Ocean Cuisine International and Sea Joy Shrimp Farms.

The Aquaculture Certification Council’s process certification promotes management practices that reduce the risk of product contamination and improve the image of the product in the market. The ACC requirements encompass farm and processing plant HACCP, plus incorporating stringent environmental standards that exceed almost all country regulations. Additionally the ACC adds a significant component of social responsibility examining community, wage, living condition and child welfare issues which reflects its initial focus in the third world.

At this time the ACC is only certifying shrimp farming but expects to develop standards for other products in the future The ACC uses a four star system to individually certify hatcheries, farms and processing plants in the international shrimp farming industry. Currently feed mill standard are being developed to complete the fourth star. This summer, the first three star certifications were achieved by Nova Companies/Bluecadia Aquaculture Group, LLC, of Belize, followed closely by Camarones de Nicaragua, S.A. (Camanica) and SeaJoy Group of Honduras.

To express their participation in ACC's certification program, ACC-licensed buyers and certified facilities in good standing may use the “Best Aquaculture Practices” certification mark in advertising and product labelling as specified in their contractual agreements with ACC. This process certification assures buyers and consumers that the products from certified facilities were produced in a responsible manner that can be traced with ACC's proprietary online traceability system from the hatchery to the buyer.

The ACC operates by training independent certifiers who are accredited by the council to perform site inspections for program participants. Acting as consultants for companies or as auditors (but not both), certifiers help companies prepare to meet the standards and forward audit reports to the council for review. Certifiers also conduct audits for importers who wish to evaluate the sources of there overseas product. The ACC approach favours both small and large farming operations and offers significant flexibility in the BAP approach without compromising its standards, which is important for success in the range of operations experienced across the third world.

SQF Program and the Canadian Aquaculture Alliance

SQF means Safe Quality Food. The SQF Program is a fully integrated food safety and quality management protocol designed specifically for the food industry with application at all links in the food supply chain.

The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) is a non-profit, non-governmental association which conducts programs in research, education, food safety, industry relations and public affairs. Its members consist of food retailers and wholesalers worldwide representing over 26,000 retail stores in over 50 countries. FMI purchased the SQF program in 2003 and established the SQF Institute to manage the Program from the FMI head office in Washington, DC. At the request of its members, FMI acquired the SQF Program so they could utilize one program that met their requirements and at the same time provide efficiencies for suppliers.

Like the ACC, the SQF Codes are based on universally accepted Codex Alimentarius HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) Guidelines and offer the food sector a way to manage food safety and quality simultaneously.

  • The SQF 1000 Code is a HACCP based supplier assurance codes designed specifically for primary producers.
  • The SQF 2000 Code is a HACCP supplier assurance code which has wide appeal across the food manufacturing and distribution sectors.

The SQF Program is recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative as conforming to the highest international standards and utilizes protocols recognized by the International Accreditation Forum.

In developing the “Brand Canada Program” for the Canadian Aquaculture Industry, the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance has partnered with SQF at the request of several key retailers. CAIA expects that very soon, retailers will begin sending letters to their suppliers requesting SQF certified products, including salmon. Retailers have indicated that they will want SQF certified products in their stores within 9-12 months. CAIA does not anticipate that not all retailers will initially require the SQF seal, but the number will grow as the benefits of the program become apparent CAIA also expects that this will spread to the food service industry as well as there has already been interest expressed to the SQF Institute for this certification.

While there are other possible certification schemes available, the SQF system, which is trusted and subscribed to by key retailers of Canadian salmon (it is the program of their organization), seems to be the natural choice for Canada. One of the reasons the SQF system was acquired by FMI, is to provide a consistent program across all food products so they retailers do not have to deal with a multitude of programs, and interpret the scope or quality of each one.

Five categories of risks are addressed in the SQF Farmed Salmon Certification Program that has been developed by CAIA, including hazards associated with food safety, product quality, environmental stewardship, animal care and worker health and safety. A complete hazard analysis was conducted for each category of risk when developing the program. A series of Best Aquaculture Practices (BAPs) have been developed for the production component, and a series of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) for the processing component.

The SQF Farmed Salmon Certification Program encompasses production as well as processing. All certified product will be able to carry the SQF certification seal, and company names will be on a retail list (managed by the SQF Institute) of SQF certified salmon farm or processing operators. However, to carry the SQF seal on a retail product requires that the product be produced on a SQF certified farm, and processed at a SQF certified processing facility.

There is a strong relationship between the CAIA National Code System for Responsible Aquaculture and the SQF Farmed Salmon Certification Program standards. CAIA has worked to ensure that the National Code System would meet any SQF requirements, and as such is taking an equivalent approach for the two systems. This will allow companies that comply with the National Code System standards, or the SQF Farmed Salmon Certification Program standards to use the Brand Canada logo. The SQF Farmed Salmon Certification Program address salmonids only; however, it is anticipated that a similar type of SQF program could be easily developed for non-salmonid finfish and shellfish producers given sufficient industry interest.

CAIA is entering the implementation phase of the SQF program. Each company interested in achieving SQF certification must have at least one person trained as a SQF Expert (specific to the salmon aquaculture industry) and a core group of individuals with specific industry, SQF and audit expertise to perform certifications must be developed and agreements negotiated with an SQF certifying body to deliver the necessary audits and certifications..

Brian Kingzett, who often considered his participation in the aquaculture industry as “certifiable” is a Senior Associate with the Blue Revolution Consulting Group Inc.. Brian was recently accredited as an independent certifier with the Aquaculture Certification Council.

   Melissa Struthers, is the Research and Food Safety Program Coordinator for the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance and has been coordinating the development of the SQF program for CAIA

  

Update: November 2005 - Wal-Mart issued a Press Release stating that , Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. took an important step to ensure that the company's imported shrimp is farmed with environmental sustainability in mind. Wal-Mart has partnered with Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) and Aquaculture Certification Council, Inc. (ACC) to certify that all foreign shrimp suppliers adhere to Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) standards.

 

 

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