Food Quality Magazine
ISSUE 03 | JULY 2015
A label you can trust
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)
Increasing demand for sustainable
seafood
More and more seafood shoppers
believe that ocean sustainability is
important and as a result consumers
are increasingly looking for assurance that their seafood comes from a
sustainable source. This has led to
retailers, restaurants and suppliers
seeking MSC certified seafood. The
retail market value of MSC labelled
seafood has more than doubled since 2009 to US$4.8 billion in 2013/14.
McDonald’s, Whole Foods Market,
Lidl, Sainsburys and Carrefour are
just a few of the brands selling MSC
certified seafood. Frozen seafood
brands, Findus, Iglo and Frosta have
also committed to use the MSC ecolabel. In addition there are now more than 180 university campuses that
are MSC certified.
The MSC Fisheries Standard brings
together over 15 years of expertise
from scientists, the fishing industry and conservation groups. It is a
reflection of the most up to date
understanding of internationally accepted fisheries science and best
practice management.
To be part of the supply chain for
MSC certified seafood, processors, retailers and restaurants must
comply with the MSC Chain of
Custody Standard. This ensures that
MSC certified seafood is not mixed
with uncertified products and can
be traced back to a certified source.
There are close to 3,000 supply chain organisations certified to handle
MSC certified seafood.
The MSC ecolabel on a seafood product means that:
• It comes from a wild-catch fishery
which has been independently certified to the MSC’s science-based
standard for environmentally sustainable fishing.
• It’s fully traceable to a sustainable
source, DNA testing of random
seafood samples confirms this. An
independent lab undertakes our
DNA testing and consistently, over
98% of products tested are correctly labelled.
5