MarinTrust unveils its new marine ingredients standards

Marine ingredient certification standard provider MarinTrust unveiled Version 3 of its standards for the responsible supply of marine ingredients. 

MarinTrust said the new standard, debuted alongside IFFO – The Marine Ingredients Organisation’s annual conference in Cape Town, South Africa, lays the foundation toward a fully traceable marine ingredient supply chain with a focus on both environmental and social impacts – both at the factory and vessel level. The organization added the new standard also aims to increase accessibility to responsibly sourced and produced marine ingredients – and also encourages the use of byproducts in the creation of those ingredients. 

“This version comes towards the end of a rigorous, long-term development process, closely overseen by MarinTrust’s multi-stakeholder Governing Body Committee,” MarinTrust Executive Chair Libby Woodhatch said.  “It included pilot assessments across the world and feedback from key marine ingredient stakeholders to enhance the consistency and robustness of audits.”

The new standard is the result of a 60-day public consultation which tapped into stakeholder feedback from the industry. MarinTrust CEO Francisco Aldon said the new version will be effective 1 May 2024.

“This date marks the day when all sites applying for a MarinTrust certification or a certification renewal will have to comply with the updated requirements,” Aldon said. “As for the sites already certified against the MarinTrust Factory Standard, 1st May 2024 marks the start of a year-long transition period, allowing for adjustments to be made by every factory until 1st May 2025.”

The new standard, MarinTrust said, comes with eight sections, each with a few key changes compared to the last version. Sourcing prerequisites, it said, have been streamlined and refined, and all raw materials must be assessed “with assurance in place to ensure the legality of sourcing.” Assessments and auditing consistency and efficiency, it added, have also been improved – with enhanced traceability assurance to mitigate fraudulent acts.

The new standard also comes with an enhanced quality management system, MarinTrust said, which covers the full scope of policies and procedures with strengthened checks of suppliers and subcontractors.

Raw material sourcing practices have also been adjusted, to ensure that the origins of raw materials being used by MarinTrust-certified companies can be verified – using new key data elements supplied by the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability which clarify the types of byproducts and sources.

Staffing of facilities is also addressed in the new Version 3 standard – including staff training and competence and social accountability and community standards to ensure staff safety and welfare both at the factory and vessel level.

“We need to consider social criteria, it is not only the right thing to do but it also provides the assurances required for market access and ensures marine ingredients continue to lead,” Woodhatch said. “For this new version, the social criteria at a factory level have been strengthened to ensure worker rights, in line with globally accepted ILO conventions. For the first time, we are expanding our scope to include social criteria on vessels supplying whole fish to marine ingredients producing plants, and these will be based upon a risk assessment framework at a country level.”

Another big change is the launch of new byproducts and whole fish fishery assessment criteria. The new approach will establish a risk assessment framework for byproducts that includes assessing country-level illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing risks for byproduct species.

The use of byproducts in aquaculture feed has been a hot topic for some aquaculture producers, particularly in Japan. Japanese producers often use byproducts for aquafeed as an environmentally friendly way of reducing waste, but their use does not meet the feed standards of some aquaculture certification bodies. The disconnect has led many Japanese aquaculture companies to abandon certain certifications.

The new MarinTrust standard for byproducts, the organization said, will include a better step-by-step process to check for IUU risk, endangered species lists, and fishery management systems before approval to enhance the sustainability and strengthen management controls on the use of byproducts – which could help mitigate challenges.

“Alongside the development of V3, we have reviewed and updated the byproduct and whole fish criteria, strengthening the assessment to make it more focused,” MarinTrust Fisheries Manager Emily McGregor said. “For whole fish, the criteria focus on strengthening the management controls and mitigating risk to ecosystems. For byproducts, this version takes a different approach, with a complex pathway for the verification of origin, with a step-by-step assessment, focusing on country risk using IUU fishing risk indices.”  

Photo courtesy of MarinTrust